GCR.org in person visits to clinics

Why do representatives of GCR.org visit medical facilities in person?

Visiting clinics and hospitals in person is an important part of the inspection process of GCR.org. As our goal is to be a transparent, independent and reliable rating of medical clinics worldwide, it gives us an opportunity to verify the information that is provided by the clinics and patients themselves through GCR.org

We carry out regular visits to all types of medical clinics, all around the world. We call these GCR™ Clinic Ambassador visits and we use them to make sure the GCR™ Score of all clinics is in line with what we present on GCR.org
Some things - such as how frequently we visit the clinic, the size of the local ambassador team, whether it's a local expert or patient visiting your clinic and whether or not we announce that we are coming - depend on what type of medical clinic or hospital we are inspecting.
GCR.org can carry out two different types of visits - announced or unannounced.

Announced visit

When GCR™ Clinic Ambassadors or patients make an announced visit, we will write to the medical facility to give sufficient notice in order to minimize disruption to any clinical commitments.
In advance, we may ask for copies of relevant documentation to be shared with us, such as:
  • brochures
  • aftercare sheets
  • guarantee details
  • patient consent forms

Unannounced visit

When we make an unannounced or mystery patient visit, we will not give the clinic any notice and will evaluate the public areas of the clinic as well as the staff we meet. We do neither wish nor need to disturb any patients currently undergoing a treatment in the clinic. We may also ask to see copies of key documentation on the visit day and take photographs of clinic's premises.
We also carry out focused visits. These are smaller in scale than ambassador visits, although they follow a similar process.
We carry out focused visits for two reasons:
  • to look at something particular we're concerned about, which might have been raised during a GCR™ Local Ambassador visit or from a patient
  • if there is a major change in the GCR™ Score of a clinic
A focused inspection doesn't always look at all of the 4 GCR™ Pillars. The size of the inspecting team and who's involved depends on what GCR.org is looking at.