when deciding to accept an offer, are physician negative reviews a red flag?

[realtreky]

I don't have an offer but just looking ahead. I have an interview with a family practice for an open PA position. As I was doing my research on his practice I found that he has a lot of negative reviews from patients. Slightly less than half the reviewers liked him and said he was nice and easy going. The rest didn't like him. Most of the complaints were that he cant keep staff including providers. One reviewer actually said he likes the PAs better but they don't stay. Some of the complaint were that the staff are rude. Patients wait too long for their prescription to be called in or not informing patients of imaging results back....

I am concerned with these reviews. Should I take them as a red flag? 

Edited May 18, 2019 by realtreky

[UGoLong]

I don't have an offer but just looking ahead. I have an interview with a family practice for an open PA position. As I was doing my research on his practice I found that he has a lot of negative reviews from patients. Slightly less than half the reviewers liked him and said he was nice and easy going. The rest didn't like him. Most of the complaints were that he cant keep staff including providers. One reviewer actually said he likes the PAs better but they don't stay. Some of the complaint were that the staff are rude. Patients wait too long for their prescription to be called in or not informing patients of imaging results back....
I am concerned with these reviews. Should I take them as a red flag? 

I would ask if there are other PAs there and, near the end of the interview, talk with one of them. The patient waiting times are a chronic problem in many places and may be why they want to hire another PA. On line reviews aren’t scientific.

The interview process is a two-way street, but be diplomatic asking your questions.


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[Guest ral]

Online reviews, and reviews in general, are bullshit on their best day.  During the interview, ask for an estimate of currently active patients in the practice.  If they have a panel of 3000, and you found 149 negative reviews, it gives you an idea of how many are doing the complaining.  Unless I have received exemplary service, I will rarely go out of my way to tell the world about my positive experiences but, forget to put mustard on my hamburger, and heads are going to roll!

[mgriffiths]

I would not take google (or other) reviews as a negative...viewing medicine as something to review like customer service is not OK (that's a "customer" problem).

 

But, the turnover could definitely be a concern.  I would DEFINITELY ask to speak with the other PAs/NPs (if any are there) and discuss their point of view - without administration and/or MD/DO around.

[realtreky]

Thank you so much for all your responses and advice.

[Boatswain2PA]

20 hours ago, realtreky said:

I am concerned with these reviews. Should I take them as a red flag?

No, you should take them as a sign that your prospective SP might actually practice good medicine instead of pandering to useless, and demonstrably harmful, patient satisfaction scores

[ventana]

I would ignore all of them EXCEPT then ones that state he turns over staff..... make sure you do not sign a long term contract, or one that has you paying him back any monies if you leave...

[thinkertdm]

As a scientist, don't arbitrarily dismiss any data; take each piece, determine it's source and then weigh it accordingly.

Any patient report, in my mind, never, ever indicates anything aside from the ability of some one to use "the internet".  Bad reviews don't indicate he doesn't know medicine; unfortunately, it doesn't mean he's a super star either.  

However, there seems to be more than a fair number of reports on his manner that may-may- show a difficulty working with others.  Or not.  What do you do with this information?  Dig deeper.  Look him up on state medical board for discipline episodes.  Google his name.  Just investigate.  It would be nice if state pa associations kept a database of "difficult to work with" sp's.