Rush University Medical Center in Chicago is adding a new twist to its online physician ratings and reviews program: actual patient comments.

Beginning this fall, Rush, No. 7 in the Internet Health Management 2017 Digital Hospital 500 rankings, began publishing patient comments.

The latest update to include patient comments is aimed at giving patients and consumers more transparency in finding a doctor, says Rush chief medical officer and senior vice president of digital affairs Dr. Omar B. Lateef. “We have known for some time that the overwhelming majority of patient comments about Rush providers are very positive, but our patients do not have access to our internal survey results,” Lateef says. “Using the upgraded patient feedback area on our official Find a Doctor site will get them the most accurate information as they look to find a physician.”

Since 2014, physicians at Rush have been able to view their own patient feedback information and compare it to that of other physicians via Rush University Medical Center’s electronic medical record system. Rush became only the fifth hospital in the nation to go public with patient feedback about providers when it debuted the star ratings on the Find a Doctor site in January of 2015, Rush says.

Since then, Rush leaders and physicians have been exploring additional ways to share information with prospective patients. Research has shown that patients are going to the internet to find physicians, and many are visiting third-party websites that sometimes present inaccurate information. A handful of poor ratings on those sites can lead to misleadingly low physician scores, according to Rush.

The patient comments are provided by Press Ganey Associates, a healthcare marketing company that surveys Rush patients and other patients nationwide about their experiences with healthcare organizations and providers. Rush shows ratings and comments for any physician or other care provider mentioned in 30 or more survey responses from patients in a 12-month period. In the same way that the star ratings on the website are refreshed on a rolling 12-month average, based on Press Ganey survey results, the provider patient comments will be refreshed as well, Rush says.

Comments are shown in the order in which they are submitted. Each month, the oldest comments rotate out and the newest comments are displayed. Rush’s patient relations team works with an outside company to manage the posting and removal of comments and updating the star ratings.

Physicians have the chance to review the comments before they are posted, and they can appeal comments that raise concerns to a committee of the medical staff. After the review period ends, comments are displayed on the website, with the exception of those not directly related to the provider, such as feedback about parking or billing, for example. Rush’s risk management department reviews comments as well to prevent libelous or otherwise inappropriate comments from being posted.

“Our goal is to be respectful of both providers and patients while being as transparent as possible,” Lateef says.

Rush joins Cleveland Clinic, University of Utah Health Care, Wake Forest Baptist Health and others that have similar processes for posting patient comments. “We think this effort will help our providers, as well,” Lateef says. “Having this feedback front and center will help us find ways to provide even better care to the communities we serve.”

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