Scripps Clinic, Coastal Launch Online Physician Rating System

Patients choosing a Scripps Clinic or Scripps Coastal Medical Center physician now have more information to help them decide. The medical groups are the first in San Diego County to provide online ratings of physicians based on the results of Press Ganey patient satisfaction surveys.

“We decided to post these ratings on the Scripps website because we know patients are going online for this information, and some of the third party websites they’re visiting usually only have a small number of unverified reviews,” said Robert Sarnoff, MD, president of Scripps Clinic Medical Group.

“We have data from our Press Ganey surveys that we use internally and knew it would be of value to patients looking for a reliable source of information when making their health care decisions,” said Kevin Hirsch, president of Scripps Coastal Medical Group.

Press Ganey provides research and business consulting for more than 50 percent of the hospitals in the United States. The online ratings will be calculated by taking a weighted average of all patient scores on the care provider section of the Press Ganey survey, which includes 10 questions that ask patients to rate their physicians on the following factors:

•Friendliness/courtesy of the care provider

•Explanations the care provider gave you about your problem or condition

•Concern the care provider showed for your questions or worries

•Care provider’s efforts to include you in decisions about your treatment

•Information the care provider gave you about medications (if any)

•Instructions the care provider gave you about follow-up care (if any)

•Degree to which care provider talked with you using words you could understand

•Amount of time the care provider spent with you

•Your confidence in this care provider

•Likelihood of your recommending this care provider to others

The online rankings system is similar to most online consumer rating sites. Ratings of one to five stars will appear on the profile pages of Scripps Clinic and Scripps Coastal physicians on www.scripps.org. Physicians must have a minimum of 30 surveys for scores to be posted, and scores are updated monthly on a rolling 12-month basis.

Several health systems across the United States have recognized the value to their patients of making available to them the robust, accurate information Press Ganey satisfaction survey data provides. Through these medical groups, Scripps will be the second health system in California to do so, following Stanford Health Care.

Learn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system in San Diego, Calif.