Q: Who administers the patient experience surveys for Northwestern Medicine?

A: In order to monitor our patients’ satisfaction with their healthcare experience, we partner with Medallia to collect feedback from patients. Medallia leads the market in understanding and managing experience for customers and employees across various industries. Northwestern Medicine engages Medallia to survey our patients and to provide comparative data to enable us to identify opportunities to improve. Patient satisfaction is an indicator of quality health care and a higher score may indicate that a hospital provides a higher level of patient care.

Q: Which clinicians are eligible to have star ratings and comments on NM.org?

A: Employed Northwestern Medicine clinicians whose patients are surveyed using the Medallia Ambulatory, Ambulatory-Telehealth, Ambulatory Surgery, Outpatient, and Outpatient-Telehealth surveys. The clinician types included are: MDs, DOs, DCMs, DPMs, PhDs, Fellow/Attendings, PsyD, Acupuncture Therapist L.Ac, Advanced Practice Nurse APRN, Audiologist AuD, Certified Nurse Midwife APRN CNM, Certified Nurse Practitioner APRN CNP, Certified Clinician Assistant PA-C, Chiropractor DC, Clinical Nurse Specialist APRN CNS, Dentist DDS, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor LCPC, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist LMFT, Massage Therapist LMT, Neuropsychologist PhD, Occupational Therapist OT, Optometrist OD, Physical Therapist PT or DPT, Podiatrist DPM, Psychologist PsyD, Speech Language Pathologist SLP.

Q: What questions are included in the Medallia survey and are used in the rating calculation?

A: The Medallia survey has a “Likelihood to Recommend Provider” question with a 0 to 10 scale (0 – Not At All Likely to 10 – Extremely Likely) that contributes to a clinician’s overall star rating. Star ratings are calculated using the following scale:

0 = 0 Star

1,2 = 1 Star

3,4 = 2 Star

5,6 = 3 Star

7,8 = 4 Star

9,10 = 5 Star

Q: Why doesn’t my clinician have patient ratings and comments available?

A: Patient ratings and comments are posted for clinicians with the following credentials (MDs, DOs, DCMs, DPMs, PhDs, Fellow/Attendings, PsyD, Acupuncture Therapist L.Ac, Advanced Practice Nurse APRN, Audiologist AuD, Certified Nurse Midwife APRN CNM, Certified Nurse Practitioner APRN CNP, Certified Clinician Assistant PA-C, Chiropractor DC, Clinical Nurse Specialist APRN CNS, Dentist DDS, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor LCPC, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist LMFT, Massage Therapist LMT, Neuropsychologist PhD, Occupational Therapist OT, Optometrist OD, Physical Therapist PT or DPT, Podiatrist DPM, Psychologist PsyD, Speech Language Pathologist SLP) and those who see patients in the outpatient setting and have received at least 30 patient experience surveys. A clinician will not have ratings or comments available until the minimum number of surveys is received from patients. Clinicians will also not be included if their hospital, practice or department is not yet participating in Medallia surveys.

Q: Will all patient comments be posted for participating clinicians who have met the minimum number of returned surveys?

A: The most recent 100 patient comments from Medallia surveys are being posted to clinician profile pages. Only comments related to the clinicians’ bedside manner will be posted.

Comments will not be posted if they are not related to the bedside manner of the clinician or care given at the visit, or if they include commentary on technical aspects of care that others could construe as medical advice. Offensive language, potentially slanderous material and personal information about the patient are also deleted from comments before they are posted.

Comments and star ratings are refreshed twice a year from Medallia therefore, comments from past survey vendors will not appear on the website.

Q: Why does a clinician have more ratings than comments?

A: We include all ratings in a clinicians’ overall star rating, regardless of comment. Comment counts can be lower due to patients leaving a rating, but not leaving a comment. Or comments being removed because they contain personal information or profanity.

Q: What is the date range of comments and ratings that are published?

A: June 1, 2020 to August 31, 2022.