Trust and review policies

Clinician Index separates public identity records from professional peer feedback. A public NPI or licensing record is not a Clinician Index score.

Credential verification

Automated checks prepare information from permitted official sources. Every final credential approval is made manually by an administrator, who must confirm the official credential source, identity, active status, scope, and discipline information before approving access. Restricted registries may require an official-source lookup.

Review standards

Reviews must reflect the reviewer’s firsthand professional experience, avoid patient information, and describe observable workplace behavior. Reviewers must attest that the assessment is not paid or exchanged and that it does not include personal health or identifying details. We do not accept sentiment-conditioned reviews.

How the assessment and score work

The current assessment asks 10 questions: four about patient interactions observed by staff, three about team communication and respect, and three about reliability and safety practices. Responses range from Never to Always. Reviewers can select Not observed / unable to assess, which is excluded from calculations. At least three behaviors must be observed to submit a review. Optional follow-ups add context and do not affect the score.

Only approved assessments from professionals whose reviewer access remains approved are eligible. The score uses the current questionnaire, assessments submitted within the past 12 months, and work observed within the year before submission. A reviewer must have rated at least two questions in an area to contribute to that area's average. If the same person reviewed a clinician at several locations, their area ratings are averaged first so that person contributes once per area.

A preliminary public score appears only after at least 10 distinct reviewers contribute and each of the three areas has observations from at least five reviewers. These are publication safeguards for this pilot, not established scientific reliability thresholds. Below the thresholds, we show that feedback is still being gathered.

Within each area, observed answers are averaged for each reviewer, then averaged across reviewers. The three area averages contribute equally to the single public score. The scale converts an average of Never to 0 and Always to 100. The optional breakdown describes response frequency without creating separate public scores.

This assessment has not been validated as a measure of clinical competence, technical skill, clinical outcomes, or an official hospital quality metric. It supports reflection and improvement and should not be the sole basis for employment, privileges, compensation, or care decisions. Patient-related answers describe staff observations, not patient-submitted experience ratings. Professional credentials are checked; the working relationship and reported experiences are attested by the reviewer.

Earlier questionnaires and their moderation decisions are retained. Their answers are not reinterpreted or combined with the revised score. Payment does not change scoring, review eligibility, or moderation standards.

Public profiles, claims, and corrections

Some public profiles begin with information from official practice directories and the CMS NPI Registry. When the sources match, the NPI is the one identity used to keep the directory profile, reviews, and score together. If a source-directory profile cannot yet be matched to a public NPI record, it stays searchable but cannot receive reviews or a score. These pages are marked unclaimed and do not by themselves establish current employment, hospital privileges, board certification, or endorsement. A physician may use the profile’s claim link to submit credentials for manual review, or use the correction link to report a factual error. Do not include names, dates, medical record numbers, diagnoses, or other patient details. Providers may also report outdated credential information, privacy concerns, or content that violates these rules for administrator review.

Information and privacy

Account and credential applications may contain your name, account email, professional role, jurisdiction, credential and license numbers, NPI, and notes needed for verification. Credential details are private administrator records and are not displayed on public profiles. Reviewer submissions include a selected clinician and organization, an alias, individual answers, when and how often they worked with the clinician, and optional professional narrative; reviewer account identity is protected and public pages expose only an aggregate score after moderation and the minimum evidence threshold. Public directory records come from the linked official sources and are labeled by source.

We retain verification and moderation records for operational, fraud-prevention, and audit purposes while the program is active. To request a correction, privacy review, or deletion of information you submitted, include the profile or application identifier when contacting the Clinician Index administrator through the account or application communications associated with the record. Do not send patient information.

Important limitation

Clinician Index information is not medical advice and does not guarantee clinical outcomes. It is an informational peer-signal system, not a substitute for professional licensure or hospital credentialing.

Apply for reviewer access · Create account or sign in · Return home