The RateMDs Rating System

Finding a doctor you trust starts with information you can trust

At RateMDs, we believe patients deserve more than a star average. You deserve to know where patient feedback comes from, who left it, and how it was collected — so you can make confident, informed decisions about your healthcare.

That's why we've built a Rating Authorship system for our platform. Rather than displaying anonymous reviews with no context, feedback now includes a label that tells you a little about its source, without compromising patient privacy.

Why authorship transparency matters

When you're choosing a healthcare provider, you're making a decision that affects your health and well-being. That's why we take the quality and credibility of patient feedback seriously.

Research consistently shows that patients are more likely to trust a rating when they can see some context about who left it — not necessarily a full identity, but enough to understand the relationship between the reviewer and the provider.

At the same time, we respect the privacy of patients who left feedback. Many patients worry about reputational risks or discomfort in sharing their personal healthcare experiences. Our Rating Authorship labels are designed to provide helpful context while protecting raters' identities

Our commitment to you

RateMDs does not remove or filter patient feedback based on whether they are positive or constructive. All feedback, regardless of their scores, are displayed according to the same rules. Healthcare providers cannot pay to have unfavourable patient feedback removed. 

How our Rating Authorship labels work

Every feedback on RateMDs is assigned a Rating Authorship label based on two key factors:

• The reviewer's relationship to the platform (did they have a verified RateMDs account, or submit anonymously?)

• Their proximity to the provider (does their location match the provider's city or province?)

These two factors are combined to create a label that appears alongside each patient feedback — giving you a meaningful insight about its likely authenticity, without revealing anyone's personal information.

The four rating types

Here's a breakdown of each label you might see on a provider's profile:

How location is determined

Location labels are inferred using IP address data at the time of patient feedback submission - we never ask users to manually enter their address. A rating labeled "from Ontario" means the user's IP address was associated with a location in Ontario when they submitted their feedback. This is a privacy-friendly way to provide geographic context without collecting personal data. More details on our Privacy Policy.

What makes 'Verified Patient' feedback special?

Verified Patient feedback are the gold standard on our platform. These come from standardized Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys (HCAHPS) used by hospitals to measure patient experience.

These surveys are administered by authorized partners and follow rigorous data collection standards. The result is feedback that has been independently verified as coming from a real patient interaction, not an anonymous submission.

There are currently over 650,000 Verified Patient feedback on RateMDs, making it one of the largest collections of verified patient feedback in Canada.

What about anonymous patient feedback?

We believe in showing you everything, including the context, rather than hiding feedback that don't meet a specific verification threshold. You deserve the full picture.

The majority of feedback on RateMDs come from users who submitted without a logged-in account. These are labeled as 'User' feedback, and where we can match a location to the provider's region, we include that context. 

We include these feedback because anonymous feedback can still reflect real patient experiences. However, the label helps you weigh it alongside other feedback types.

How our rating moderation system works

All feedback submitted on RateMDs passes through a series of moderation steps. This process is designed to protect the integrity of the platform for both patients and healthcare providers. 

Our rating moderation approach has three layers:

• Profanity filters keep the language family-friendly

• Spam detection removes inauthentic submissions quickly

• Human moderators step in where our automated systems flag something unusual

Most feedback are posted immediately after submission. In some circumstances, publication may be delayed so our team can review it against our Terms of Use, for example, when a profile exhibits irregular posting patterns that suggest spam or astroturfing. 

What rating moderation is NOT

It is not to influence whether feedback skews postivie or critical. Feedback that is critical or unflattering is nerver removed for those reasons alone. Moderation exists solely to uphold feedback quality and prevent abuse.

Additionally, healthcare providers have access to Rating Concierge through RateMDs’ subscriptions. This tool provides instant rating notifications to healthcare providers and allows a 7-day rating preview window, where providers can resolve outstanding issues privately with the patient, escalate to our Validation Team, or respond.

We want to be transparent about our history. RateMDs previously offered a feature that allowed providers on a subscription to hide three negative reviews. This feature has been discontinued since 2019 as it conflicted with the transparency we are built to provide, and it is no longer part of how we operate.

What gets removed and why

Patient feedback can be flagged by anyone. If you see patient feedback that may be in violation of our Terms of Use, we encourage you to flag it for review. Flagged feedback are reviewed and may be removed for reasons including, but not limited to:

• Inappropriate, hateful, or threatening language

• Astroturfing (flooding a profile with positive ratings)

• Spamming (flooding a profile with negative ratings)

• Repeated posts

• Hearsay or other patients’ experiences

• Personal information (such as including phone numbers, email addresses, and/or residential addresses)

• Generalizations or content without a personal medical experience

• Serious accusations of unlawful activities

• Other healthcare providers mentioned by name

Feedback should reflect the facts of your personal medical visit experience with the specific provider you are reviewing. Those based on court-appointed assessments or Independent Medical Examinations (such as workers’ compensation, insurance, disability, or personal injury litigation assessments) may also be removed, as these do not involve a standard doctor-patient relationship.

Ratings are never removed because they give a low score or because a healthcare provider finds them unflattering. RateMDs does not accept any fees for rating removal.

Our commitment to unbiased ratings

RateMDs exists to help patients make informed healthcare decisions. That means we're committed to:

• Displaying all feedback, positive and negative, according to the same consistent rules.

• Giving you context about where each piece of patient feedback comes from, without compromising patient privacy.

• Continuously improving how we verify, label, and present feedback so that you can trust what you read.

We know that choosing a healthcare provider is one of the most personal decisions you can make. The patient feedback on RateMDs are here to support you. Every label, every data point, every transparency measure is built with your trust in mind.

Frequently asked questions

Can a provider pay to have negative feedback removed?

No. Providers cannot pay to remove or alter any feedback — regardless of its score. RateMDs does not work with rating removal companies, and any claims made by such companies are false. Feedback is only removed when it violates our Terms of Use, which apply equally to positive and critical submissions.

What does the ‘Verified Patient’ label mean?

Verified Patient feedback is collected through standardized patient surveys (such as HCAHPS) supplied by our long-time partner, Press Ganey. These surveys follow rigorous data collection standards and are independently verified as coming from a real patient interaction. It is the highest-confidence rating type on the platform.

I submitted feedback but it isn’t showing up — what happened?

Most feedback is published immediately. Delays can occur if our team needs to review the submission against our Terms of Use, or if a provider is subscribed to our Rating Concierge service, which grants a 7-day preview window for the provider to respond or escalate. The RateMDs Commitment to Transparency knowledge base article provides an in-depth view of how our rating moderation system works.

I see a feedback that I think should be removed, what can I do?

You can flag it! Our moderation team reviews all flagged submissions and if a rating is found to violate our Terms of Use, it will be removed.

Can providers respond to patient feedback?

Absolutely! Providers can post provider responses to any feedback on their profile after they have claimed their profile. Provider responses are labeled to make clear they come from the practice. 

Have questions about a specific feedback or label? Contact our support team at support@ratemds.com - we're happy to help.