A big Ohio hospital well known for its national expertise in medical specialties ranging from ear, nose and throat to cancer and heart surgery now wants to be known for another specialty: online patient engagement.

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, an academic facility located in Columbus, Ohio, and on the main campus of The Ohio State University, is rolling out online physician reviews and ratings as part of a broader digital healthcare initiative, says senior director of digital strategy Megan Stanley. “It’s all about greater patient engagement and transparency,” she says.

In December, Wexner introduced physician ratings using a one to five star rating system on its website and will begin to add physician reviews next month, Stanley says. Wexner has a physician network of about 1,400 doctors that practice general medicine or about 20 specialties ranging from sports medicine to vascular medicine. About 400 Wexner physicians now have an online rating with an undetermined number of more physicians being added each month. “All of our specialties are represented,” Stanley says.

Megan Stanley

Wexner is adding physician ratings and reviews as one more way patients can go online to research and find a physician. The physician ratings are generated from Wexner’s annual Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey, also known as Hospital CAHPS. The program is a standardized survey and data collection methodology that measures patients’ perspectives on hospital care. Hospitals that bill Medicare must provide the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services with a new survey annually.

There have been about 33,000 visits to physician ratings pages on the Wexner website, and the average rating for the 400 Wexner physicians is 4.3 to 4.4 stars, Stanley says. Next month when physician reviews are added, patients will be able to see ratings on physicians and read reviews from over the last 12 months from a database Wexner says numbers more than 10,000 reviews.

To build the new doctor ratings and reviews features for its website, Wexner worked with Press Ganey, a provider of patient satisfaction surveys for CAHPS, and Loyal, an Atlanta developer of digital patient tools and templates. Each physician review page features an overall star rating and separate 1-5 star rating on such other metrics as Explains Things Clearly, Listens Carefully, Gives Understandable Instructions, Knows My Medical History, Shows Respect and Time Spent Together.

The doctor ratings pages also contains a video message from the physician, the doctor’s credential and specialties, office locations, the type of insurance the doctor accepts and related information. Going forward—and as part of a broader push for more digital healthcare options for patients—Wexner plans to eventually add online scheduling and possibly even telehealth.

Wexner is in the process of introducing other digital services. Online physician scheduling for specialties beginning with sports medicine began rolling out in October. Consumer telehealth may also be added, although Wexner didn’t release a specific full rollout date.

While surveys show patients want digital tools that help them research and find hospitals, Wexner joins only about 60 hospitals that offer online doctor ratings and reviews.  Many consumers use general ratings and reviews sites such Yelp and healthcare sites such as HealthGrades.com and others to complain, compliment or otherwise comment about a doctor.

Despite the evident consumer interesting in physician ratings and reviews, few hospitals offer that option on their websites, according to the Digital Hospital 500, a first-ever ranking by Internet Health Management on America’s most digitally advanced hospitals. The data shows that only 53, or 10.6% of the Digital Hospital 500 publish ratings and reviews on the physicians in their hospital and health network

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