How do I know if a doctors’ office had a high score?
There are four levels to show how well a doctor’s office scored on the measures reported on this website.
- Doctors’ offices with a completely filled circle and a diamond scored the highest, with the best possible performance.
- Doctors’ offices with a completely filled circle scored very high.
- Doctors’ offices with a half-filled circle scored higher than some, but lower than others on the measure.
- Doctors’ offices with an empty circle scored lower than many doctors’ offices on the measure.
While viewing report results, you can click on the symbol to see the doctors’ office’s actual score for each measure.
When viewing a report page, you will see the Symbol Key (shown above) to show you how to read the symbols. This key shows the direction of scores from lowest to highest. You can click on the key to review the symbol descriptions at any time without leaving the page.
Willingness to recommend is reported using a percentage, which indicates the number of respondents that would definitely or probably recommend their provider to family or friends.
Does a low score mean that the doctors’ office does not give good care?
Not necessarily. A low score can simply mean that the medical group needs to improve that one aspect of care. Doctors’ offices are working hard to improve health care.
Each quality measure looks at just one aspect of the care. A doctors’ office with one low score can still give good care in other areas. Compared to other parts of the country, Massachusetts providers do very well on these quality measures. Also, the results of these measures can be affected by many things, including the types of systems the doctors’ office has to support high quality care (such as electronic medical records or systems for following up with a patient), as well as how often patients see their provider and follow recommendations.
What does it mean when I see ND instead of a circle icon?
When you see ND in place of a circle symbol it means that MHQP has too little data to report on this measure. This can happen when:
- Not enough patients answered the questions about the doctor's office.
- Not enough patients at the doctor's office received care that could be included in measure results.
- Not enough providers in the doctor's office gave care that could be included in measure results.
What does the star icon mean?
This “star” icon means this practice has received an MHQP Patient Experience Award for top performance in this category. These awards recognize the adult and pediatric primary care practices that perform highest or are most improved on MHQP’s annual statewide Patient Experience Survey.
You can learn more about these awards here.
How can I find my provider’s score?
MHQP does not report on individual providers.