WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – For consumers, the Internet offers a wealth of insight into everything from cars to vacations; however, when it comes to finding the best doctor, it’s important to know the source of your information. These days, there are Web sites that offer ratings on everyone from repairman to radiologists -- even companies known for picking the best restaurants and hotels in town are getting into the doctor rating business. Within this crowded landscape for physician ratings is DrScore.com, a site created by a doctor and patient satisfaction expert.
DrScore.com collects feedback from patients about their doctor visits and then provides scientifically validated data back to the doctors so they can make improvements to their processes within their practice. In addition, the collected data is used by patient satisfaction researchers for studies published in medical journals.
“I created DrScore.com to help doctors get valuable feedback from their patients and as a way for patients to freely get more information about doctors,” says Steve Feldman, M.D., a practicing dermatologist and patient satisfaction expert. “As doctors and as patients, we all want the same outcome – to get better. DrScore.com is an excellent tool for doctors and patients to collaborate on the path to good health.”
While other rating sources are paid for by insurance companies or advertisers, DrScore.com receives its revenue from the nearly 1,000 doctors who use DrScore to get feedback from their patients. These patient satisfaction reports provide participating doctors with concise, actionable information they can then use to improve their services or to show insurers the quality of their practice. DrScore evaluates physicians on key performance criteria including wait times, treatment success, doctor friendliness, staff, and time with the doctor.
Unlike rating services that are designed purely to lower costs, DrScore.com is centered on patient satisfaction and its strong correlation to overall wellness. “At DrScore.com, our focus is on improving the quality of the health care experience. We also know that by increasing a patient’s level of satisfaction with their doctor, there is the opportunity to reduce costs in the process, says
Dr. Feldman. “In our patient satisfaction research studies, we’ve found that patients who are happier with their doctors are more likely to follow their doctors’ orders and take the prescribed medications. This leads to better outcomes, thus reducing or eliminating health care costs incurred by repeated doctor visits.”
DrScore.com is a free service providing patients with an anonymous vehicle for delivering constructive feedback to their doctors. The survey, which takes only three to five minutes to complete, addresses a broad range of satisfaction elements. DrScore.com tracks more than 64,000 ratings for thousands of doctors across the country. Physicians receive an overall rating as well as average scores for key satisfaction areas. In addition, the site provides basic information on each physician in its database including specialty, address and phone number of his/her practice, medical school attended and residency. Visitors to DrScore.com can also use a search mechanism to find physicians by name, city or specialty.
“DrScore.com was created by a physician and provides an important service to participating doctors, but the site is completely patient-oriented,”
For physicians, the patient feedback they receive on DrScore.com may become a useful tool in the ongoing debate with insurer-based ratings. “With large insurance companies starting to collect ratings on their own, it is even more important for doctors to get feedback and have their own data,” says Dr. Feldman. “DrScore.com provides important, patient-driven input to complement cost-based rating systems.”
