Hospitals post doctor ratings on websites

When a few doctors at the University of Utah Health Care read bad online reviews about themselves, they took matters into their own hands and started posting patients' reviews of facility doctors on their own hospital's website, Kaiser Health News reported.

Now the hospital's review page, based on patient surveys, pops up first on Internet searches. "We knew our patient satisfaction scores were really strong and we had a good story to share with our patients," Brian Gresh, senior director for interactive marketing & web at University of Utah Health Care, told KHN.

More hospitals are following its lead, and some, such as the Cleveland Clinic now use patient satisfaction scores and doctor ratings to create competition and encourage physicians to up their game, according to the article. "Doctors are highly competitive and no one wants to be on the bottom of the list," James Merlino, M.D., chief experience officer at the Cleveland Clinic and a member of the FierceHealthcare advisory board, said.

Integris Health, the largest hospital system in Oklahoma, will post consumer satisfaction scores for 70 of its doctors at the end of the month, in an effort to create transparency and trust with its patients, according to KHN.

If hospitals want to provide even more transparency, Merlino said they should also publish the patient surveys they provide to Medicare, including information on individual physicians, the article states.

A study last year found 25 percent of parents look at ratings websites when they choose a pediatrician, FiercePracticeManagement previously reported, and 19 percent of respondents in a separate study said physician ratings on a reporting website were a "very important" factor in their choice.

To learn more:
- here's the KHN article