Dear editor,

In response to the news about Marshfield Clinic’s initiative to add patient comments to its websites, I personally think that there should be a difference when we consider services of a doctor versus buying things on Amazon. Yes, we are spending money when seeing a doctor, but the relationship is different. The rating system reduces the patient-provider trust and changes it to a number game.

In my opinion, these ratings change a provider’s focus from care to getting good reviews. As a patient, I would like my provider to do the right thing for my care instead of making me happy by accommodating my demands of different medicines or testing to ensure a good review.

In olden days, the patient-provider relationship used to be of respect, trust, and care, and in some cases it was more trustworthy than our family members. Unfortunately, due to the commoditization of health care in the U.S., it has been changed into a materialistic relationship. Now we can rate a shampoo on Amazon or a McDonald’s burger, and likewise we can rate our provider. Do we rate our family members with whom we have a relationship of trust and care?

Providers spend a big part of their lives obtaining required education, skills, and licenses to do practice. How logical it is to rate their efforts of a lifetime on a scale of 1-5 after a short visit? In my opinion, one patient’s perspective of a provider must not be constituted to a negative experience for another patient.

Syed Abidi

Marshfield