The customer ratings that influence everything from the books people read to the jeans they wear are now coming to medical care in Minnesota.
Patient satisfaction ratings for 651 primary care and specialty clinics were released Wednesday by the Minnesota Department of Health and a nonprofit called Minnesota Community Measurement, expanding the state's eight-year effort to place health care quality data in consumers' hands.
The new report ranks clinics in four categories: availability of timely appointments, courtesy of clinic staff, communication skills of the doctors and overall doctor quality.
"We now have a statewide measure that can paint an accurate picture of the patient experience," said Jim Chase, executive director of Minnesota Community Measurement.
Minnesota is the first state to publish patient satisfaction data on such a large scale, according to state Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger. He said he anticipates that patients will use the data to select doctors, and health insurers would use it in contract negotiations with clinics. He said he hopes clinics would embrace any bad results as motivation to improve.
"The worst," he said, "is if you're not doing a good job and you don't know it."
Overall, 78 percent of patients gave their doctors excellent ratings, but there was wide variation. Only 47 percent of patients at Apple Valley Medical Center's urgent care gave top marks to doctors, compared with 93 percent at the Lakewood primary care clinic in Pillager, Minn.
Craig Wolhowe, Lakewood's vice president of clinic and hospital services, credited the clinic's success to doctors who listen to patients and a system that doesn't pay doctors per visit or pressure them to rush through appointments.