When people consider the online review service Yelp, most think about local businesses like restaurants, hair stylists or mechanics. Doctors and hospitals? Not so much.

Founded in 2004, Yelp has created a community where consumers can provide their opinions about businesses. This helps assist other consumers in choosing where they would like to eat, shop or visit. According to Yelp, in the second quarter of 2015, there were more than 83 million reviews — clearly demonstrating consumers like to share their opinions.

Yelp has allowed and encouraged its reviewers (also called Yelpers) to review and rate healthcare organizations. Up to this point, though, the reviews have all been consumer opinions and experiences.

However, on Aug. 5, Yelp announced a new feature that would include actual data for hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis clinics. Some of the data that will be included are emergency room wait times, quietness, fines a facility may have paid and any serious deficiencies that may have been reported.

Most of the data provided is publicly available information that is reported to Medicare and Medicaid and can be found on Medicare's Hospital Compare website. Although the data is readily available to the public, it is often not easy to decipher or navigate. A new partnership with ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative journalism outfit, provides most of the data for the new feature, which is gleaned directly from the sources but in a context that is easier for the consumer.

The mission of ProPublica is to "expose abuses of power and betrayals of public trust by government, business and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlight of wrongdoing." Although it may seem like a strange pairing, the partnership is mutually beneficial.

In exchange for ProPublica providing Yelp data, Yelp provides ProPublica with its own review data. In one of the first data analyses by ProPublica, they noted that most Yelpers have strong, polar opinions about healthcare providers, with one- or five-star reviews being the most prevalent.

In an era of patient satisfaction scores closely tied to reimbursement and coupled with more savvy healthcare consumers, Yelp is truly attempting to chart new territory. Not only will consumers be able to read comments from actual patients and consumers, as they had before, but reported data will also be available.

Considering 45 percent of consumers stated they have viewed online provider ratings and reviews, Yelp is perfectly positioned to assist patients and families in their decision-making.