The consumer-oriented website http://www.angieslist.com/ has just unveiled a new healthcare ratings category. Patients are able to share their experiences about doctors, dentists, hospitals, pharmacies and health insurance providers. Now doctors, hospitals and other providers will be subject to the same scrutiny and commentary as plumbers, electricians, and moving companies.

Consumers merely have to pay a membership fee and can immediately begin rating a physician’s bedside manner and professionalism, or a hospital’s price, quality, and responsiveness. And these ratings include simple to understand grades – ranging from A to F.

Unlike other rating systems, administered by governmental agencies using commonly agreed upon measurement tools or ratings based upon publicly available data, this feedback will be totally subjective and consumer driven. And the feedback can be based on the experience of one patient – rather than data aggregated across many encounters.

Are our institutions and processes ready for this kind of consumer scrutiny? Probably not. How can we get ready? I think we will need to increase our dialogue with consumers and ask on a regular and systematic basis "how we are doing?" and not just focus on the clinical answer. This process will need to go well beyond traditional patient satisfaction surveys and outcomes data – and may include regular follow-up phone calls and even mystery shopping, a practice more commonly found in department stores and restaurants. What are you doing to get ready?