Sentara Jumps into the Urgent Care Patient Experience Data Pool

Hospital systems have been tracking patient experiences for decades. Now one of them is extending that practice to its own urgent care centers; Sentara Healthcare is thought to be the first organization in the country to post aggregate patient survey ratings for urgent care centers online. National Research Corporation reached out to 40,000 patients within 1 to 3 days of a Sentara urgent care visit over the past year, asking them to rate their experience on a five-star scale. Results show an average rating of 4.7—a great score, but the real value may be that that rating now appears as the first organic search result when patients turn to Google looking for urgent care centers in the area. Seven Sentara locations in Virginia’s Hampton Roads region are already on board, with an eighth ramping up now.