[How representative is the healthcare assessment website Zorgkaart Nederland? The evaluation of medical specialists by patients in the Netherlands].
OBJECTIVE
To describe the number of ratings and the corresponding scores given to medical specialists on the Dutch healthcare assessment website 'Zorgkaart Nederland.nl', and evaluation of this website as tool for evaluation of quality.


DESIGN
Explorative descriptive study.


METHOD
In July 2015, data were gathered from the public section of the healthcare assessment website 'ZorgkaartNederland.nl'. The number of specialists, the mean ratings per department (group mark), the number of evaluations, the number of medical specialists without a rating and the number of specialists with at least 9 ratings were registered per speciality, per hospital. Outcomes measures were the median number of ratings per speciality and the group score. Data were analysed using descriptive and non-parametric statistics.


RESULTS
Each month, 763,000 unique visitors access ZorgkaartNederland.nl; on average, 0.08% of these registers a vote. There were 15,337 medical specialists, spread across 97 hospitals and 2,060 specialities on ZorgkaartNederland.nl, with a total of 45,548 evaluations. Of these, 6,682 (43.4%) specialists were not rated, and 1.165 (7.6%) had ≥ 9 ratings. Additionally, 327 (15.9%) departments were unrated. Surgical departments were evaluated more often, and their grades were significantly higher, than those of non-surgical departments.


CONCLUSION
The website ZorgkaartNederland.nl shows ratings for 56.6% of all medical specialists. When the lower limit of at least 9 evaluations per specialist introduced by ZorgkaartNederland.nl was applied, only the grades for 7.6% of all specialists are valid. On average, 0.08% of unique visitors cast a vote. Surgical specialities have a higher number of evaluations and a higher score than non-surgical ones. ZorgkaartNederland.nl in its current form does not constitute a valid tool for evaluation of the quality of medical specialist care in the Netherlands. This article provides recommendations for improvement.