How Does RateMDs's Rating Actually Work?

Each patient rating is built from four categories that RateMDs says matter to patients: helpfulness, knowledge, punctuality, and staff. All four are weighted equally within that single rating, and the individual ratings are then averaged together to produce the overall score shown on a provider’s profile.

Because it’s a plain average, every rating counts the same regardless of when it was posted. A provider’s score moves in direct proportion to the ratio of positive to negative ratings on file — there’s no dilution effect for new profiles and no extra weight given to recent activity the way there is on some other platforms.

• Four equally-weighted categories per rating — helpfulness, knowledge, punctuality, and staff.
• A plain mathematical average — RateMDs’ own description is that the score “reflects actual patient experiences, no more, no less,” with no disclosed recency weighting or new-profile dilution.
• Every rating counts the same regardless of age, so a handful of older negative ratings carries the same weight as recent ones until it’s outnumbered by new activity.
• Ratings RateMDs removes for violating its Terms of Use — fake ratings, wrong-provider errors, private health information, spam, profanity, or libelous content — don’t factor into the average at all.