From Reviews to Results: How MemorialCare Achieved 4.8 Stars with RepuGen

Online reputation has become a defining factor in patient trust and practice growth. The real challenge for healthcare organizations is figuring out how to consistently collect patient feedback, and actually use it, to strengthen satisfaction and build long-term credibility.

That’s exactly what Debra Spindel, Former Vice President at MemorialCare Medical Group, and Lauren Parr, Co-Founder & Product Director at RepuGen, explored in a recent deep-dive conversation.

In this blog, you’ll find both the video and the full transcript of their discussion. They walk through MemorialCare’s journey to achieving 4.8-star patient experience scores, the operational challenges they navigated, and how RepuGen became an essential part of improving patient feedback workflows, online visibility, and overall satisfaction.

If you’re a healthcare leader focused on strengthening your online reputation or simply want a clearer understanding of how patient feedback drives real outcomes, you’ll find practical insights throughout this conversation.

Prefer to watch or listen? Here’s the full conversation from our discussion with Debra Spindel:

MemorialCare’s results further highlight this impact with more than 350 providers using RepuGen, the organization consistently sustained 4.8-star ratings and increased high-quality patient reviews across major platforms.

Read their full case study: MemorialCare’s 4.8-Star Patient Experience Success Story

Featuring insights from Debra Spindel, Former VP at MemorialCare

Lauren: Debra, could you start by telling us about your role at MemorialCare and what ‘patient experience’ meant under your leadership?

Debra: Until last year when I retired, I was Vice President of Physician Services for MemorialCare’s medical foundation, overseeing the physician group management organization, billing and patient experience. When I was there, we had over 350 providers using RepuGen.

Lauren: That’s incredible, 350 providers is no small number! It really gives a sense of the scale you were managing and how central patient experience was to your role.

Lauren: Let’s build on that-When you first took on the responsibility for patient experience, what were your initial priorities.

Debra: I assumed responsibility for patient experience in 2017. At that time, patient satisfaction scores were only average and there was minimal ability to obtain actionable patient feedback. So, my main priority was to figure out how to improve the patient experience.

Lauren: “That makes perfect sense, starting with the fundamentals and really trying to understand what patients were feeling and how to improve their experience.

Let’s talk a bit about the challenges you faced along the way those early barriers that made improving patient experience difficult.

Lauren: What were some of the main barriers you faced in collecting and acting on patient feedback before implementing RepuGen?

Debra: We only had the standardized CAHPS survey, which was a regulatory requirement for an organization of our size, to give visibility to how our patients felt about their healthcare experience.

The problem with that type of survey is that:

1. They are anonymous so there is no way to interact or perform service recovery and
2. There is a significant lag between the patient’s visit and receiving the survey, resulting in some loss of recollection plus no ability to resolve patient concerns before they might post something online. Also, the response rate on those surveys was usually very low, around 12%.

Lauren: Totally understandable. I’ve noticed that many of the regulatory surveys are anonymous and often sent well after the patient’s visit, which creates a lag and makes it hard to take timely action.

Lauren: How did those feedback challenges impact MemorialCare’s online reputation, for instance, review volume, star ratings, or how patients were finding your physicians online?

Debra: Well, basically there was no management of our physicians’ online reputation, so most had a low volumes of reviews, including some that were very old. Before RepuGen, I think the average star rating was around 3.9.

Lauren: That’s something we see so often, a great organization with excellent providers, but without a consistent system in place, their online presence doesn’t reflect the quality of care they’re delivering.

An average rating of 3.9 with outdated reviews can make a huge difference in how patients perceive the practice before they ever walk in the door.

So, with all these challenges in mind, let’s move into how you and your team started looking for a better way to manage patient feedback and reputation.

Lauren: What outcomes did you hope to achieve when you decided to implement RepuGen across MemorialCare’s provider network?

Debra: The desire was to obtain immediate, actionable feedback from patients with the ultimate goal of significantly improving both online ratings and the results of the standardized CAHPS survey.

All the major health plans also survey their patients and higher scores can equate to significant financial rewards. We worked as a development partner with RepuGen to design a platform with the capability and flexibility to meet our needs.

Lauren: That’s such an insightful approach, I love that it wasn’t just about boosting ratings, but about creating a continuous feedback loop that truly benefited patients, providers, and even financial performance.

Let’s talk about what that process actually looked like, implementing a new system of this scale and getting everyone on board.

Lauren: How did you gain buy-in from physicians and staff during the rollout?

Debra: Back then, the idea of online reputation management was a foreign idea to most physicians. To be frank, they didn’t like the idea of asking for reviews and didn’t see the need. So, we started with a smaller, forward-thinking group of physicians.

Once we had the very positive results, along with industry stats on the importance of online reputation for patient acquisition, it was much easier to convince the larger organization to adopt RepuGen as well.

Lauren: I love that approach and it’s something we see work often with new clients, starting small and letting the early results speak for themselves. Change is always easier to embrace when people can see the impact firsthand.

Let’s talk about what those early outcomes looked like once RepuGen was fully up and running.

Lauren: Once the system was fully operational, what type of impact did you see?

Debra: One immediate result was the much higher response rate. With RepuGen, around 30% of patients responded to the survey, most with comments. Then we started seeing the online star ratings increase, along with review frequency and immediacy.

Lauren: That’s such a big improvement, going from about 12% to 30% is a huge leap in response rate. And the fact that so many patients were also leaving comments must have given your team such valuable insight into what was working and what needed attention.

It’s also great that you started seeing online reviews increase so quickly, it really shows how immediate feedback can translate into visible reputation growth.

Lauren: Can you share a specific example of how the feedback received was actionable?

Debra: Yes, as mentioned, RepuGen is flexible and can be customized as needed. We set it up such that when a negative rating was received, the Practice Manager of the specific site received an email with the details.

Based on our protocol, they would then reach out to the patient to get more information and perform service recovery. The intent was both to achieve operational improvement and satisfy the patient before they posted something negative online. Our managers reported that most patients were very grateful that someone listened to their concerns.

Lauren: It’s a well-thought-out process that many of our clients use to this day, responding quickly, resolving issues, and using feedback to guide improvement.

Lauren: These results really tell the story. After implementing RepuGen, MemorialCare saw a major jump in both volume and sentiment.

You can see here that the number of online reviews tripled in just the first year, and the average star rating climbed from 3.9 to 4.6. At the same time, the percentage of 5-star reviews rose dramatically, while 1-star reviews dropped to a fraction of what they were before.

It’s clear that this wasn’t just about collecting more feedback, it was about creating a real shift in how patients engaged with the organization and how quickly concerns were addressed.

Lauren: The improvement after implementing RepuGen was remarkable, review volume tripled in the first year, and average ratings climbed from 3.9 to 4.6. What do you think drove that transformation?

Debra: I think the multi-pronged approach mentioned above was the key, driving more patients to rate online along with the mechanism for immediate feedback and service recovery.

Lauren: That makes sense. When you start addressing patient concerns right away, it changes everything, not just in terms of preventing negative reviews, but in the way patients begin to trust that their voices truly matter. Quick, genuine follow-up turns what could have been a complaint into a moment of connection. Love it.

And I imagine once those results became visible, it really started to influence provider motivation and engagement, let’s talk about that next.

Lauren: Did you observe any shift in provider behavior or motivation once they could see their feedback trends and patient sentiment directly?

Debra: Yes, they were much happier with the ability to get immediate feedback and understand how patients were feeling. They were also much more engaged in the process and became a bit competitive about their scores and online ratings. When we could use actual data to pinpoint areas of concern, it became easier to provide constructive interventions and training as needed.

The physicians also saw the correlation between high online ratings and new patient acquisition. We did surveys of new patients and found that over 50% chose their physician based on Google and other online review sites.

Lauren: Wow, that’s such a great example of how empowering providers with real-time feedback can completely change engagement. Once they can actually see how patients feel and where they stand, it naturally builds that sense of ownership, and even a little friendly competition, which is always fun to see.

And hearing that over 50% of new patients chose their physicians based on online reviews really highlights how important reputation is.

Lauren: How did your team use positive feedback to recognize or reward staff and physicians internally?

Debra: We made sure to distribute results continuously to motivate and ensure visibility for both staff and providers. We also used the scores to recognize individuals and teams that achieved excellent results.

Here’s an example of how we would use the RepuGen dashboard information to highlight performance.

Lauren: I love that. Feedback as both a motivator and a culture builder.

Lauren: I think that’s a perfect lead-in to wrap up our conversation.

We’ve covered many valuable insights today, from the early challenges to implementation and the results that followed.

Looking back, what key lessons or best practices would you share with other healthcare leaders aiming to elevate their patient experience and online reputation programs?

Debra: I’d say the key learning was the crucial importance of obtaining immediate feedback that is actionable. That made all the difference in the success of our program.

Also, back then, changing the physicians’ perception of online reviews was challenging, but in today’s environment, the importance is well understood. Now, I think the challenge is how best to manage reputation given how the internet has evolved with AI and other new technologies.

Lauren: That’s a really insightful perspective, it shows how much the landscape has evolved in just a few years.

And you’re absolutely right, with AI now shaping how patients find and evaluate providers, reputation management has entered a new era. It’s becoming more about staying visible and trusted in a digital-first world.

Before we wrap up, is there anything else we didn’t cover today that you’d like to share, maybe a final thought or reflection from your experience?

Debra: I’d just like to say that I truly appreciate the partnership I had with RepuGen during those years. The team there was always extremely responsive to needs and receptive to our ideas for enhancement.

Lauren: That means a lot to hear, Debra, thank you for saying that. It’s been such a privilege to revisit this journey with you and to hear firsthand how MemorialCare transformed its patient experience.

And thank you to everyone for joining us today! We hope you gained valuable insights into how patient experience can be transformed with data-driven tools and strategies. If you’re interested in learning more about how RepuGen can help your practice, feel free to reach out to us at www.repugen.com.

We’ll send you a recording of today’s session and the resources we discussed, so you can review them and share them with your team.

We’re looking forward to seeing what you do next and to building the future of patient feedback together.

Thanks again, and have a great rest of your day.