A new ranking shows where the 30 largest U.S. health systems fall based on reputation score, which evaluates both solicited and unsolicited feedback from patients to determine a provider's standing.
The ranking comes from Reputation, the business-to-business online reputation management company. Its 2023 Healthcare Reputation Report is informed by over 1 million patient reviews across 200,000 physicians and hospitals, including unstructured data such as tweets, Facebook posts and other comments that appear on social channels.
The rankings may seem counterintuitive. The top-ranked health system per U.S. News & World Report ranks last for online reputation, for example. Reputation General Manager Andrew Rainey said the standings come down to how well health systems manage their reputations online.
"The leaders in our 2023 report engage more with patients online and respond to reviews much better than laggards do," Mr. Rainey told Becker's.
"The leaders accumulated an average of 237 percent more reviews than the laggards. We recommend all providers ask for reviews, respond to them, and learn from them," Mr. Rainey said. "Doing all this will improve the patient experience, and patient sentiment will improve. But everything starts with doing one thing: asking for reviews. Many providers are reluctant to ask for reviews. They fear that doing so will result in a negative rating. But patients are going to review you, anyway, so you might as well participate in the process."
A few key takeaways from the report:
- Patient reviews of hospitals are up 38 percent since 2021 and 90 percent since 2020, with an average hospital star rating of 3.7 in 2022.
- An analysis of positive reviews found the top three drivers of positive patient experience at hospitals are staff, bedside manner and physician competence. Top drivers for a negative review include wait times, emergency care and pain management.
- About 86 percent consumers say they read online patient reviews, up from 72 percent when Reputation surveyed consumers in 2022.
- "Think of online reputation as word of mouth on a much larger scale," Mr. Rainey said. "One person communicating to the internet has the potential to share their message with millions of people. Those people then might share what they read online with their networks, reaching even more potential consumers."
The rankings
Reputation analyzed the 30 largest health systems in the U.S. and ranked them by their reputation score, which measures (1) review sentiment, (2) review volume, (3) review recency, (4) review spread, or how many places reviews are posted, (5) search impressions, (6) social engagement, (7) review response and (8) review length.
Reputation evaluated acute-care facilities within each system and aggregated their scores to arrive at a single score. Below is each ranked system along with its reputation score.
1. Community Health Systems (Franklin, Tenn.)
Reputation score: 726
2. HCA Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.)
Reputation score: 683
3. AdventHealth (Altamonte Springs, Fla.)
Reputation score: 678
4. Universal Health Services
Reputation score: 671
5. Sutter Health (Sacramento)
Reputation score: 574
6. Baylor Scott & White Health (Dallas)
Reputation score: 561
7. Ascension (St. Louis)
Reputation score: 548
8. University of Texas System (Houston)
Reputation score: 545
9. Tenet Healthcare (Dallas)
Reputation score: 539
10. CommonSpirit Health (Chicago)
Reputation score: 538
11. UPMC (Pittsburgh)
Reputation score: 531
12. Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.)
Reputation score: 526
13. Lifepoint Health (Brentwood, Tenn.)
Reputation score: 525
14. Banner Health (Phoenix)
Reputation score: 522
15. Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City)
Reputation score: 515
16. NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System
Reputation score: 505
17. University Hospitals Health System (Cleveland)
Reputation score: 504
18. University of California Health (Oakland)
Reputation score: 501
19. Corewell Health (Grand Rapids and Southfield, Mich.)
Reputation score: 495
20. Penn Medicine (Philadelphia)
Reputation score: 493
21. Advocate Health (Charlotte, N.C.)
Reputation score: 481
– Mount Sinai Health System (New York City)
Reputation score: 481
23. Trinity Health (Livonia, Mich.)
Reputation score: 480
24. Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.)
Reputation score: 473
25. Cleveland Clinic
Reputation score: 473
26. Bon Secours Mercy Health (Cincinnati)
Reputation score: 467
27. Providence (Renton, Wash.)
Reputation score: 453
28. NYC Health + Hospitals (New York City)
Reputation score: 440
29. Mass General Brigham (Boston)
Reputation score: 438
30. Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.)
Reputation score: 367