Consumer Reports and Massachusetts Group to rate primary care doctors' practices

Consumer Reports and Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) unveiled their Patient Experience Ratings of primary care physician groups. The Ratings cover nearly 500 practices in Massachusetts.  Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) is a coalition of consumers, government agencies, hospitals, insurers, physicians and researchers. The ratings of 329 adult practices and 158 pediatric practices are drawn from MHQP’s statewide patient experience surveys, which have been conducted and publicly reported on by MHQP since 2006. Consumer Reports intends to partner with other organizations to provide physician Ratings in other states as well. The findings from MHQP’s survey provide information from the patient’s perspective about how well physicians communicate with their patients, coordinate medical care, know their patients, and whether patients would be willing to recommend their doctor to family and friends. The survey covered 47,565 adults and 16,530 parents of children, all of whom had commercial health insurance. The survey also asks patients about their experiences with the rest of the office staff, such as nurses, receptionists, and the people who handle billing and insurance questions. Parents received a different set of questions since children have different health issues.

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Download the full Consumer Reports story and ratings tables for nearly 500 adult and child primary care practices in Massachusetts. (PDF)