ATLANTA, July 10, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atlanta-based Digital Assent today announced the launch of DocScores.com, the fastest-growing healthcare ratings and reviews site on the web. This user-friendly website features patient feedback captured at the time of service via Digital Assent's award-winning PatientPad® point-of-care network.
DocScores.com has the goal of creating the most statistically significant collection of patient ratings and reviews anywhere on the web by integrating with tools and services that enable physicians to capture patient feedback from every patient who visits their office. The first of these integrations is with PatientPad's innovative ReviewCatcher™ technology.
"We decided to create DocScores™ based on the overwhelming success of our new ReviewCatcher product, which launched on the PatientPad platform in March of this year," explained Tim Collins, co-founder and CTO of Digital Assent. PatientPad is a tablet-based patient engagement solution that enables patients to check-in for their appointment, learn more about their visit and explore relevant health information while they wait. ReviewCatcher makes it quick and easy for patients to rate their visit and leave a review on their PatientPad tablet before they leave the doctors' office - while their experience is top of mind.
"Leaving a review on one of our PatientPad tablets takes less than a minute," commented Ed Zunzunegui, vice president of customer service for Digital Assent. "Since launching ReviewCatcher, we've been collecting an average of over 20 verified reviews per physician, per month," added Zunzunegui. "In some of our higher-volume physician practices, we're collecting more than 150 verified reviews per month."
In order to ensure the integrity of the ratings and reviews on the website, 100% of the reviews collected via PatientPad are automatically published to DocScores.com in real-time. Physicians don't have any ability to filter or "cherry-pick" patient testimonials for display on the DocScores website.
"Some doctors are initially apprehensive at the idea of collecting real-time feedback from patients and automatically publishing it to the web, because they've been conditioned to fear online reviews," explained Andrew Ibbotson, founder and CEO of Digital Assent. "However, it doesn't take them long to realize that if their patients are mostly happy, they will consistently leave positive reviews – provided it doesn't require a lot of extra effort."
Digital Assent is changing the paradigm for capturing and measuring patient satisfaction with its in-office tablet system. "Happy patients typically just say thanks on their way out the door, whereas unhappy patients are more motivated to go online and leave a negative review," explained Ibbotson. "By enabling every patient who visits the practice to share their feedback at the time of service, you end up with a much more accurate picture of patient satisfaction."
New PatientPad customers like Dr. David McDaniel M.D. in Virginia Beach have received more verified patient reviews in their first month of using PatientPad than they've received on the top 10 physician review sites combined over the past 15 years. Furthermore, the consistent capture of these reviews helps ensure ongoing first-page search result rankings.
According to a recent study of the top 10 physician review websites by Loyola University Medical Center, ratings on these other websites are based on scores of only 2.4 patients on average.
"One of the biggest frustrations physicians have with today's online review sites is that they can be easily skewed by a negative score from just one or two patients," commented Ibbotson. "The unfortunate reality is that a lot of excellent physicians have a very small number of online reviews, and those reviews are often disproportionately negative." PatientPad is poised to transform the online reviews landscape with its innovative review capture technology and DocScores.com website.
About Digital Assent
Digital Assent is a healthcare technology company that helps physicians and brands more effectively engage patients at the point of care. The company's award-winning PatientPad® technology is transforming the patient experience at doctor's offices throughout the United States. Upon arrival, each patient is given their own PatientPad® tablet to check-in for their appointment. Patients then hold on to the PatientPad® to learn more about their visit, explore relevant health information and share their feedback before they leave. Digital Assent's rapidly growing PatientPad® Network now spans every major metropolitan market in the country. For more information about Digital Assent, please visit www.DigitalAssent.com.