Meet The Contributors

Mandy ~ I am a stay at home mom who has been on a medical roller coaster ride going from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what is wrong with me. All of the doctors agreed that there is something medically wrong with me, they just don't know what... Basically, just about every time that I go to the doctor, I wind up with a new diagnosis. It is very frustrating. I hope that some of these links will maybe help you or lead you in the right direction.

Ferd ~ I have had the honor and pleasure of practicing Internal Medicine for over 25 years. I am now enjoying sharing my thoughts and experience in the blogosphere in a number of ways. I am grateful to Mandy for including me on her excellent blog, Texas Medical Freak!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Physicians And Hospitals Rating System


This morning on CNN, Dr. Gupta, did a story on rating doctors and hospitals. I think this is a great idea. In the past, I have always used BCBS since that is our insurance carrier or word of mouth. Even living in such a large area as DFW, it is still hard to find the doctor for you and your needs. We don’t have a shortage by any means but, with BCBS anyway, you don’t get a lot of good information about the doctors.

I found several doctor rating websites and these are the ones that I have checked out; Health Grades, Physician Reports and RateMDs.com. All three of these are free. This is what I found on each site:

Health Grades – When you do a search on a doctor, you wind up with a report that shows;

  • Introduction – Patient/Medical Philosophy, Personal Facts, Website (if any), If the physician provides access to a nurse
  • Experience/Training – Specialties, Medical School, Internship, Residency, Fellowship and if they participate in Clinical Trials
  • Disciplinary Actions – It will show a report if any as far back as 5 years ago, through the Office of Inspector General and 50 state medical boards.
  • Patient Experience – Here you can rate your doctor and/or see what others have rated and the national average.
  • Affiliated Hospitals

Physician Reports – Once you search you doctor the reports go back to the Health Grades reports. This one was a waist of time.

RateMDs.com – On this one I did not find a lot of the doctors that I was looking for. However, you have the ability to add a doctor and rate them. I did find one doctor that I took my child to one time and I would not take my pet rock to this guy, I did rate him and voice my opinions.

There are many of services like this out on the internet, these are just the ones that I have gone to. By far my first choice would be Health Grades and then RateMDs.com. With doctors these days being so specialized, this is a good way to find a doctor for your needs, especially if you have multiple health issues. There are a lot of good and knowledgeable doctors out there but, not are all created equal.

Please, let me know what you find and links that you use.




10 comments:

Pam Hoffman said...

I think rating hospitals is a great idea.

In Los Angeles County, in CA, there is a 'rating system' applied to every restaurant in the county.

I would rather see that on the hospitals. I don't get to them as often and I can't tell what happens there.

As for the restaurant, I can usually tell if they are clean or not and the rating system doesn't always reflect the store - once there was a restaurant which got inspected right after someone trashed their bathroom and they got a bad mark for the next time period. This is a great place and I knew they were clean.

I can't tell about a hospital, though when the dust bunnies are mating, I gotta wonder...

Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com

Mandy said...

Pam ~
We do need something and why should medical be any less health than restaurants?

I am doing a follow up to this post but, I have been swamped and have not had a chance to post it yet. I should get it posted sometime this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by =)

Min-tea said...

Ok, so this might be out of point but, House! I love House M.D.

Mandy said...

min-tea

That is ok =) I love House, too. I record it every season. I can't wait for the new ones to start.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the heads up. I know a lot of folks want to stick it to bad docs, but doctors who are out there who are doing a really great job deserve to be recognized. I rated a few!

Mandy said...

HoundsGood ~ I agree. While researching this post, I rated all of my doctors the good one and the bad. Thanks for stopping by =)

Ferd said...

Mandy,
I looked myself up on Health Grades and only found basic info. They gave me the option to give more info about myself, so I have an email into them. But you have to pay for the good stuff.
The other sites seem to be rating sites. I was surprised to see so many positive comments on my local colleagues, as people are usually more inclined to complain than to praise. We do have a rather solid medical community in Toledo. I don't know how reliable a site like this would be, unless there are a lot of consistent reports.
Finally, about House. Can't stand him. There was a poll of doctors in Medical Economics this month on how well we like medical TV shows. We hated House the most. And the son of a bitch dared to show up on my last blog page. Bastard!
Nice post!
Take good care!
Ferd.

Mandy said...

Ferd ~ Thanks for the info. I always praise as much as I complain...well, most of the time.
I don't like House either but, I do like the show and Hugh Laurie. I can understand why doctors would not like him.

Thanks for the comment.

What is your view on "medical googlers"?

Anonymous said...

ratings doctors is a good idea, though that is not all one should use to chose a doctor. I use MyDocHub.com for my doctor ratings and reviews and I like the clean look it has.

Mandy said...

Anonymous ~ Thanks for the link, I will try it out.

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