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.