My column from the February issue of the Angie’s List Magazine
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost been a full year since we launched doctor reviews on Angie’s List. Last March, we started with 50 categories, a handful of reports and a desire to improve the way you search for a doctor.
If you haven’t checked the List for your dentist or doctor, sign in to see how other members have rated their experience. And if you haven’t submitted a doctor review recently, be sure to do that as well.
When Kim Bellard relocated to Westerville, Ohio, last summer, finding a new dentist for his family was at the top of the to-do list. “We hadn’t received many recommendations from neighbors or friends, but we were receiving lots of mailers from dentists,” he says. “I wanted patients’ confirmation of the glowing statements the marketing materials made, so we used Angie’s List to cross-reference with the mailings and found a dentist we like.”
Today, you can find reviews in 140 categories, and we’re collecting more than 6,000 new health reviews every month. We’re also improving AngiesList.com to help you search and report on your health care more effectively.
And starting in March, when you Check the List, you’ll be able to narrow the search para-meters to include just health or service categories.
My favorite improvement is what will happen on the health provider profile page. The new layout will include a ton of great information, like accepted forms of insurance, hospital affiliations and links to reviews on other physicians in the practice. You’ll also see where the doctor attended medical school, when he or she graduated and specialty certifications.
In addition, we’re rolling out a totally separate report form for health care providers, so you can offer ratings on things like availability, bedside manner, billing and administration, and more.
Lots of reasons prompt a search for health care providers — life events, relocation, injury or illness — and there should be a lot of resources to help identify the best doctors for your situation. Angie’s List is great at collecting individual experiences, and your response to health care ratings (3 million-plus searches to date) tells me our grapevine shouldn’t be confined to home projects.
We want to hear from you — what are we missing? What can we do better? Submit a suggestion online or send it to me directly at tellangie@angieslist.com. In the meantime, I hope these changes will make searching for and reporting on health care providers an easy and more informative process for you and your family!