Resident Physician Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, NY, US
Introduction: Private equity (PE) is increasingly investing in medical practices nationwide, including orthopedic and spine surgery practices. These investments can alter practice workflow and incentives, which could affect patient experiences and ratings. The objective of this study is to compare online patient reviews of orthopedic and spinal surgeons before and after PE investment in their practices.
Methods: Orthopedic surgery practices with recent PE investment in the first half of 2022 were identified. Google, Vitals, and Healthgrades reviews for providers in these practices before and after time of PE investment were recorded. Each of these sites use a 1-5 stars numeric rating scale with 1 being low and 5 being highly rated. Student’s t-tests with alpha = 0.05 were used to compare pre- and post-investment online reviews.
Results: Six orthopedic practices encompassing 89 providers were recorded and analyzed. Overall, the average rating across all sites for all providers post-investment was 4.46 +/- 0.99 stars, significantly higher than 4.19 +/- 0.78 stars pre-investment (p=0.003). Across Google reviews alone, post-investment average rating was 4.63 +/- 0.45 stars compared to 4.47 +/- 0.49 stars pre-investment (p=0.12). Post-investment average rating on Vitals was 4.33 +/- 1.53 stars compared to 3.98 +/- 0.91 stars pre-investment (p=0.09). On Healthgrades, post-investment rating was 4.32 +/- 1.31 stars versus 4.12 +/- 0.86 stars pre-PE investment (p=0.23). Google had the highest volume of patient ratings, followed by Healthgrades then Vitals.
Conclusion : On aggregate, orthopedic and spine surgeon online patient ratings improve after PE investment in orthopedic practices. This study cannot determine what factors explain these improved patient ratings after PE investment, however. Further research is needed to examine if improved online patient ratings translate to any benefit for patients or orthopedic surgery practices.
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