Here are six things to know.
1. A number of hospitals and practices have started to publicly report the results of their patient satisfaction surveys, which are often administered by a third party such as Press Ganey.
2. The New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery researchers identified 12 institutions which provided publicly available patient satisfaction outcomes for orthopedic surgeons from third-party surveys as of August 2016. Provider characteristics were recorded from publicly available data and 340 orthopedic surgeons were included.
3. The study authors identified four high-traffic commercial online physician rating websites:
- Healthgrades.com
- UCompareHealthCare.com
- Vitals.com
- RateMDs.com
4. For each surgeon, overall ratings on a scale of 1-5, total number of ratings and percentage of negative ratings were compared between provider-initiated internal ratings and each commercial website.
5. Provider-initiated internal patient satisfaction ratings showed a greater number of overall patient ratings, higher overall patient satisfaction ratings and lower percentage of negative comments compared to commercial physician rating websites.
6. According to HSS orthopedic surgeon Bradford Waddell, MD, increasing the use and reporting of patient satisfaction surveys stands to benefit the orthopedic community. While ratings on commercial sites are often anonymous, healthcare provider surveys can get feedback from a much greater patient population.
More articles on practice management:
Missoula Bone & Joint to open outpatient center: 4 takeaways
McLeod Health orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Woodbury opens new office
