ECRI Institute has announced the launch of a user review and rating tool for medical capital purchases that enables medical equipment users to share their opinions and assign ratings, and helps hospitals and other healthcare providers make safe, cost-effective purchasing decisions. Rate This Model is the newest tool launched as part of the SELECTplus suite of capital decision support services.
The rating tool is designed to behave like the online user reviews on consumer travel and shopping sites, giving reviewers a five-star ranking system and comment boxes to share their insights about a particular product. An interactive online forum lets purchasers and users of medical technologies rate and review technologies they are using. According to ECRI, the tool is intended to provide buyers with additional, user-based insights that could help inform the purchase process.
ECRI members who visit the Rate This Model tool will see the total number of users who have reviewed a product and a bar graph that shows the spread of ratings (ie, the number of five- star ratings versus lower ratings). ECRI reports that users typically rate technologies according to ease of use, performance, reliability, and feature set.
For more information, visit the ECRI Institute website.