DEFINE YELP DRIVER

Even though web-based reviews have been mined for other health topics, to our knowledge, ours is the first study to evaluate web-based reviews and antibiotic prescribing.

Thus, web-based reviews can drive care providers’ behaviors in ways that negatively impact public health.Īt present, the extent to which patients’ expectations for antibiotic treatment drive negative web-based reviews is unknown. Likewise, Yaraghi et al found that consumers tend to perceive care provider ratings from nonclinical websites to be as important as the ratings from government websites.

For example, Daskivich et al conducted an analysis of 5 popular web-based platforms and showed that there was no significant association between web-based consumer review scores and standard quality guidelines. Furthermore, these reviews may not accurately reflect the quality of medical care. Ĭoncerns about the impact of negative reviews appear to be valid patients often use web-based reviews when deciding whether and where to seek treatment.

DEFINE YELP DRIVER

This perceived connection between negative web-based reviews and antibiotics is hypothesized to be a significant driver of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing and is evident in at least 1 petition that has received 40,000 signatures supporting the removal of web-based doctor reviews. Even though most physician ratings on web-based platforms are positive, at least 1 study has demonstrated that in web-based physician reviews, the words medication and prescription are mentioned in more negative contexts. To avoid negative web-based reviews, which could impact care providers’ pay and the performance of urgent care centers, care providers are driven to prescribe antibiotics, even when they are clinically unnecessary.Ĭoncerns about the Yelp effect are magnified by the surging popularity of review websites, such as reviews on Google Pages, Yelp, and Healthgrades.

There is a perception among urgent care providers that many of their patients expect to receive antibiotics, even when they are clinically unnecessary, and that patients will leave negative reviews on web-based platforms if these expectations are not met. Authors in several media outlets have coined the term Yelp effect they propose that providers of on-demand care, such as those in urgent care centers, may prescribe antibiotics unnecessarily to prevent patients from leaving negative web-based reviews. Stearns et al found that patients generally had equal levels of visit satisfaction regardless of their antibiotic treatment status.ĭespite findings that do not support a link between patient satisfaction and antibiotics, care providers still report prescribing antibiotics unnecessarily because they fear that dissatisfied patients will leave negative reviews. Ong et al found that patient satisfaction was not related to the receipt of antibiotics but was related to the belief that patients had a better understanding of their illness. For example, Welschen et al found that receiving information or reassurance was more strongly associated with satisfaction than receiving an antibiotic prescription in primary care. Furthermore, prior literature on patient satisfaction and provider-patient communication have suggested that there are other factors that drive patient satisfaction. However, care providers' assumptions about a patient's expectations frequently do not match patients' actual expectations for an antibiotic. Care providers have admitted to prescribing antibiotics-even when antibiotics are unnecessary-when they assume that patients will be unsatisfied without an antibiotic prescription. Antibiotic overuse is widespread approximately one-third of all antibiotics prescribed in US outpatient settings are unnecessary. The World Health Organization has deemed antibiotic resistance, which is primarily caused by antibiotic overuse, to be one of the world's most pressing health problems.

Define yelp