This is from Nat’l Public Radio:
“Choosing a Doctor in the Digital Age”
Health consumers are increasingly shopping online for doctors through peer-based sites like FindADoc.com, DoctorScorecard.com, and even local city search sites.
Dr. Vail Reese is one of the most highly rated doctors on local San Francisco search engines . . . Reese says that about half his new patients find him through sites like Yelp, a social networking site that has a section where users can share their experiences about doctors. . .
There’s no doubt that doctors can procure positive reviews from friends, relatives, or even patients. So Victor
“My expectations were met and probably exceeded,” he says.
Health insurance companies have been rating the performance of doctors for years, but consumers seem to prefer the opinion of their peers over a company that might have a financial interest.
WellPoint, the nation’s biggest insurer, is apparently paying attention. It recently teamed up with Zagat — famous for its restaurant and hotel guides — to provide a rating system for doctors based on consumer input. According to founder Nina Zagat, the tool allows users to rate doctors on qualities of trust, communication, availability and environment.
Zagat says the physician-rating tool serves what she calls “the soft part” of a patient’s choice.
[The article quotes a doctor who says] he mistrusts insurance company sites which rate their own doctors, because they tend to steer patients to the cheapest rather than the best physicians. But, he adds, at least these sites can tell you how many procedures a doctor has done.“We were very careful not to include any criteria that we felt the individual consumer was not in a position to rate,” she says, such as the technical ability of the doctor . . .”
“If all else is equal, I would rather see the doctor who’s done this particular surgery that I need a hundred times as compared to the doctor who’s done it three times,” Wachter says. “There is in medicine, like many things in life, a practice-makes-perfect kind of curve.”
That’s particularly true with challenging medical conditions, says patient advocate Trisha Torrey . . . A full picture of a doctor’s background, Torrey says, might include when they graduated from medical school, whether they’re board-certified in their specialty area, and how long they’ve been in practice.
But health care safety advocate Robert Wachter says that what patients really need is an independent national database.
“What patients can do collectively is put pressure on doctors, hospitals, the government and others to create a set of information to allow patients to make truly informed rational choices,” he says.
Some states are working with insurance companies to help forge national rating standards, but it could be a few years before they’re in place.
Photo: Yelp.com’s website
We have just gotten a law passed in Colorado to give the consumers of this state acess to a complete profile of a doctor including all displinary actions, settlements etc. from any state of country the doctor has practived in. I agree with Robert Wachter that there should be one data bank such as the National Practioner’s Data bank that should be open to the public so they are able to make informed decisions regarding who is providing their care. The dream is to have that data bank opened so there is complete transparecy. The national stats are that 5.9% of doctors commit over half the malpractice in this country and they are responsible for 57.8 % of malpractice payments. Most of these doctors are not disciplined by their state board. See the March issue of Reader’s Digest “Doctors Who Do Harm it is enlightening for the consumer. We must pay closer attention and participate in our own health care just as we use Consumer Reports to educate us on which cell phone is the best! The public has to continue to educate themselves and demand quality, safe care.