Public Reporting in Germany: the Content of Physician Rating Websites

Abstract

A broad range of information is available on German PRWs. While structural information can give a detailed overview of the financial, technical and human resources of a practice, other outcome measures have to be interpreted with caution. Specifically, patient satisfaction results are not risk-adjusted, and thus, are not appropriate to represent a provider's quality of care. Consequently, neither patients nor physicians should yet use the information provided to make their final decision for or against an individual physician.