Beaming Score

We have talked with hundreds of families and clinicians over the past year about their experiences.

Many things make each parent’s journey unique: the age of their child, the child’s strengths and challenges, the financial situation. But across all of our conversations, one common theme has emerged — it’s hard to find great care.

Trying to find high quality care providers can often feel like searching for a needle in a haystack…So much time is spent tracking down answers to a long list of questions: Are they accredited by a third party? What does it even mean to be accredited? Do they have good reviews on Google? What are people saying on Facebook? Are they accepting new patients? By the time parents have scrambled across various websites to find this information, they’re exhausted — and it still isn’t clear for families where to find the best care.

At Beaming, we’ve created a resource that takes all of those data points and puts them in one place. Our directory lists providers across the country and consolidates important details such as parent reviews, accreditations, waiting lists, and contact information. But without a way to interpret this data, it can be overwhelming for parents. We’re working to make it easier for parents to make sense of all of this data with our newest feature, the Beaming Score.

The Beaming Score is our best effort to help parents make better care decisions for their family by interpreting everything publicly available about these providers. This score is digestible and easily comparable across providers. In our directory search results, we put the highest scoring providers first.

Calculating the Score

When calculating a score for a provider, we analyze data from a number of sources. Ultimately, it comes down to what other parents say, what other experts say, and how responsive and on top of their stuff a provider is.

Reviews (67% weighting)

Families are the ones who are making care decisions, interacting with providers, and ultimately evaluating how effective the care has been. Therefore, when creating the Beaming Score, we’ve put the most weight behind what other parents think. By aggregating reviews from Google, Facebook, Yelp, and our own Beaming Reviews, we get a view into how other parents have experienced this provider. We know that reviews don’t tell the whole story — parents have different motivations for writing reviews — and without context they should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s also the reason we give weight to other categories below.

Accreditations (25% weighting)

We aren’t the only organization with the goal of evaluating providers — we know that. Several accrediting bodies across the country take the time to research and assess providers in specific disciplines. We recognize the value of these accreditations and therefore, part of the scoring system rewards providers who have these badges. Higher weighting is given to accreditations that are more exclusive or have a higher bar for excellence.

Up-to-Date Profile (8% weighting)

As the leading directory for developmental differences on the internet, we pride ourselves on having data that is accurate, complete, and up-to-date. We rely on providers to update their waiting lists, highlight new services, and adjust their contact information. Therefore, we reward profiles that are complete with information and have been updated recently with a higher Beaming score.

Understanding the Beaming Score

We know there are so many factors that go into determining a provider’s quality and the Beaming Score should be taken with a grain of salt. We are not evaluating clinical data nor are we making site visits. We are relying on parent reviews, which we know can be biased, and on outside accreditation agencies which we do not have visibility into.

Our Beaming Score is far from perfect. But in our opinion, a start is better than nothing, and we have plans to make this better and better every day. Our goal is to help families find great care and we welcome any feedback on suggestions as we work towards that goal.

Have feedback or ideas? Reach out to us here! We want to hear from you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I see a provider’s score?

The Beaming Score is visible on every profile in our directory. When you search for a service in your area, the Beaming Score will show up on each search result. If you click into a provider’s profile, you will see a breakdown of their Beaming Score and how they’ve scored in the Reviews, Accreditations, and Up-to-Date Profile categories.

Can you share the details of how exactly a score is calculated?

Yes, we’ve included the breakdown below. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us here.

Total Score Possible: 100 points

Starting score: 40 points. Consider this the “you wrote your name on the SAT and get at least 400 points” starting point. By doing this, we believe it produces a more fair variance between scores.

Reviews: Maximum 40 points

• We multiply the average rating of a provider (aggregated from Google, Facebook, Yelp, and Beaming Reviews) by 8 points. For example, if a provider has an average rating of 4.5, their Reviews score is 4.5*8=36 points.
• If a provider has zero reviews, we give them the equivalent of a 3-star average (24 points).
• If a provider with an average rating between 1 to 1.99 has three or fewer reviews, we add 3 points to their score recognizing that the limited sample size may be unduly penalizing the provider’s score. If a provider with an average rating between 4.5 to 5 stars has three or fewer reviews, we subtract 3 points to their score recognizing that the limited sample size may be unduly inflating the provider’s score. For example, if the provider listed above with a rating of 4.5 only has 2 reviews, we subtract 3 points from their score (4.5*8–3=33 points).

Accreditations: Maximum 15 points

Up-to-Date Profile: Maximum 5 points

What is a good score?

We encourage parents and providers to look at other providers for context. The scores are all relative.

Generally, we consider a score of 75 or above to be a great score, and you will see these scores all marked in green. You can also see the breakdown of what is driving their score to be high (reviews, accreditations, etc).

It’s important to note that a great provider might have a lower score if they don’t have any reviews yet. More details below.

What if a provider doesn’t have any reviews?

We know that getting reviews from parents can be tricky. We also know that there are high quality providers that just don’t have Google, Facebook, or Yelp reviews to vouch for their quality. For that reason, we have a baseline score that we assign to providers with zero reviews that equates to 3 stars. Also, our Beaming Reviews offer an opportunity for parents to directly rate their experience with providers and we are excited to see that collection of reviews grow.

As a provider, how can I improve my score?

Apart from getting more reviews and adding awards and accreditations, we offer providers an opportunity to marginally increase their score by claiming their profile and keeping their profile up-to-date. For example, a provider that adds a contact form, photos, videos, and FAQs can earn up to three additional points. We believe this creates a better experience for parents by having a more complete picture of a provider and making it easier for a parent to get in touch with them.