Physicians keeping close watch on online reviews

Online reviews posted by customers have cast physicians under the same criticisms normally reserved for restaurants, and it turns out a majority of doctors pay close attention to those appraisals.

About 85% of physicians proactively monitor online reviews about themselves, according to a survey conducted by ZocDoc, the online physician appointment hub. ZocDoc received answers in July from 360 physicians. When it came to assessing the bias of those reviews, 62% said online customer reviews were fair, 23% said they've very fair, while 15% said they're unfair.

The survey also questioned physicians about their social media usage. While it wasn’t a subject of the ZocDoc survey, the behavior of physicians commenting online has been a topic of debate, as some worry physicians sometimes come off rude or angry while online.

The survey results showed that 53% of physicians have a Facebook profile for their practice, 34% have a Google Plus account, 28% are on LinkedIn and 21% are on Twitter. Still, 30% of physicians said they lacked a social media presence.

The survey didn’t mention Vine or Tumblr. But this being ZocDoc’s first annual survey, there’s time for physicians to catch up with their kids and share their uses for those sites in in next year’s survey.

Follow Ashok Selvam on Twitter: @MH_aselvam