HealthGrades.com is the #1 doctor-ratings Web site – by an enormous margin – according to an analysis of Web traffic by Compete, a TNS Media company. HealthGrades.com, long known for its hospital-quality ratings, is the public Web site of the leading healthcare ratings company, featuring quality reports and ratings of every practicing doctor, hospital and nursing home in the country.

According to HealthGrades more than seven million individuals visit its Web site each month to research healthcare providers using HealthGrades’ independent and objective quality information -- far more than other doctor-ratings sites and health plan sites. Over the past year, HealthGrades has begun to rate doctors, identifying selected doctors as Five-Star or Recognized Doctors. The site has also has amassed more than 900,000 patient surveys of doctors, which are part of each doctor’s profile available on the Web site.

“The numbers show that more patients are researching and choosing healthcare providers on HealthGrades than any other resource,” said HealthGrades Senior Vice President Andrea Pearson. “People visiting HealthGrades.com tend to have a specific and immediate medical need; they are ‘pre-visit patients’ who are about to go to the doctor, hospital or nursing home and are in need of authoritative information on the quality of local care providers. We are proud to offer so many patients a guide to better healthcare.”

Doctor Ratings and Quality Reports

Visitors to HealthGrades.com can find quality profiles of every practicing doctor in the country. The profiles are designed to help individuals find the doctor that is best for them and their family members. Profiles include each doctor’s medical training, board certification, specialty, years of practice, disciplinary actions in any of the 50 states, hospital affiliations, insurance accepted and, in 17 states, malpractice information. Additionally, patient surveys of their doctors are aggregated in the doctors’ reports, indicating patients’ views of office wait times, whether they feel the doctor really listens, whether the doctor would be recommended to family and friends and other survey responses.

Along with the patient ratings, HealthGrades identifies select doctors as “Five-Star Doctors” and “Recognized Doctors” based on objective quality indicators as well as patient outcomes for the hospitals at which they practice. An increasing number of doctor profiles also have personal information submitted by doctors, ranging from explanations of their practice philosophy to videos of their background, approach and areas of specialty.

Hospital Ratings

Studies have shown that hospital care quality varies widely from one hospital to the next. HealthGrades.com makes it easy for individuals to compare, side by side, the quality of care at their local hospitals using its star-ratings system. Virtually all of the nation’s 5,000 hospitals are rated independently and objectively on a range of diagnoses, procedures and patient-safety measures – from hip replacement to bypass surgery to the rate of hospital-acquired infections. The ratings are based on actual patient outcomes – mortality and complication rates – at the hospitals. On the Web site visitors can also find which hospitals have received HealthGrades awards for excellence in broader areas of specialty care such as cardiac surgery, orthopedic surgery or maternity care, as well as whether any local hospitals are HealthGrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals, HealthGrades Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence, HealthGrades Distinguished Hospitals for Patient Safety or HealthGrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award recipients.

Nursing Home Ratings

For those choosing a nursing home for themselves or a loved one, HealthGrades provides detailed ratings on each of the nation’s 16,000 nursing homes. Each nursing home is given an overall rating as well as the results of state investigation reports, recurring complaints, the relative harm caused by each issue, and tips on asking the right questions during an interview.

Drug Ratings and Medical Cost Information

To assist patients in understanding the potential costs of their care, HealthGrades.com also offers medical cost reports for nearly 100 medical procedures and treatments. Visitors to HealthGrades.com can also gather information and compare the user ratings of thousands of prescription drugs.

About HealthGrades

Health Grades, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGRD) is the leading independent healthcare ratings organization, providing quality ratings, profiles and cost information on the nation's hospitals, physicians, nursing homes and prescription drugs. Millions of patients and many of the nation’s largest employers, health plans and hospitals rely on HealthGrades’ quality ratings, advisory services and decision-support resources. The HealthGrades Network of Web sites, including HealthGrades.com and WrongDiagnosis.com, is a top-ten health property according to comScore and is the Internet's leading destination for patients choosing providers. More information on how HealthGrades guides America to better healthcare can be found at http://www.healthgrades.com.