How to Find High-Quality Health Care
Trying to find a health care provider who meets your needs and fits your budget can feel overwhelming. In the old days, you’d depend on a personal recommendation or referral from a trusted friend—now, in modern times, you can rely on the aggregated experiences of many other patients via ratings sites for doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes.
Not all ratings and reviews are created equal. Rating the quality of health care providers requires attention to the procedures used by ratings providers. Read the reviews to make sure that the ratings you’re seeing apply to the qualities that are most important to you. It’s also a good idea to use multiple ratings tools and not rely on just one.
Whether you’re looking for a physician, a hospital, a nursing home, or home health, here are some rating sites to help you choose the right health provider for you. I’ve linked to each rating site below — click through to find details on review requirements and ratings methodologies.
Physicians
Hospitals
- CAHPS Adult Hospital Survey
- Healthgrades
- IBM/Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals
- Leapfrog Group
- U.S. News & World Report
Nursing Homes
- Long Term Care Community Coalition
- Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program
- National Association of Area Agencies on Aging
Medicare’s Family of “Compare” Tools
- Physician Compare
- Hospital Compare
- Nursing Home Compare
- Hospice Compare
- Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Compare
- Dialysis Facility Compare
- Home Health Compare
- Long-Term Care Hospital Compare
Find further details in my new book, Get What’s Yours for Health Care: How to Get the Best Care at the Right Price.