by Medical Justice | Mar 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
Patient advocate Trisha Torrey has some great advice about doctor rating sites. In a recent post she writes,
“take other patients’ reviews with a grain of salt. We patients may be great at determining how nice a doctor is, but do you want your choice of doctor being influenced by someone who was just ticked off that she waited in the waiting room for too long? Don’t forget, too — there is nothing to stop the doctor herself, or her spouse or nurses to fill out those ratings questionnaires.
Someday, when there a dozen or more reviews for every physician, and someone figures out a way to make real assessments from them, I’ll revisit my opinion.”
“Most of these sites exist for only one reason – to make money. Knowing they are intended to generate income for their owners, we patients must make sure they contain useful information without a “cost” we shouldn’t be expected to pay in money, time or privacy of our information.”
Our points EXACTLY!!! That is why Medical Justice is working on a system that is verifiable, with statisicaly significant sample size and gives physicians a voice in the process.
You can read her full posts here;
Yelp and Zagat – More Cautionary Doctor Review Tales
Reviews of Physician Directories and Ratings Websites
by Medical Justice | Feb 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
We continue to espouse the dangers of sites where patients can “rate” doctors. Medical care is simply far too complicated for such a simplistic approach.
Today’s New York Times article “Noted Rater of Restaurants Brings Its Touch to Medicine” by Milt Freudenheim, discusses the Zagat-Wellpoint venture into a doctor ratings guide.
The article cites Medical Justice founder and CEO, Dr. Jeff Segal who states, “online comments are ‘at best anecdotal and in many cases fraudulent. In many cases they are posted by a disgruntled employee, an ex-spouse or even a competitor.'”
The article contains additional interesting quotes;
“Dr. Angelo S. Carrabba, an obstetrician in Rocky Hill, Conn., complained that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a WellPoint company, was ‘treating medical care provided by dedicated and caring physicians as if we were preparing a meal’.”
Dr. Cheryl Ackerman, “It (anonymous doctor ratings) hurts somebody, their reputation, their livelihood.”
Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, “There is no correlation between a doctor being an inept danger to the patient and his popularity,” Professor Caplan said. Reviewing doctors is “a recipe for disaster.”
We couldn’t agree more.
by Medical Justice | Feb 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
Kevin MD writes today about our thoughts on reforming health care. Check out the post at;
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/02/universal-care-increasing-patient.html
by Medical Justice | Feb 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
I often attend health policy discussions. I am usually the only physician in the room. My colleagues lament they just do not have time to make their voices heard. As healers, our first duty is to care of the sick and disabled; and to provide comfort when we have little else to offer. I hope the public will listen to one doctor’s voice.
We have many problems to solve: access to healthcare for the uninsured; affordable premiums for those with coverage; outcomes that provide value and keep patients safe. These goals can be realized. (more…)
by Medical Justice | Oct 21, 2008 | Uncategorized
In innumerable ways the Internet has benefited the public. Online shopping means that goods are available at lower prices and often from a wider variety of sources, both nationally and internationally. That is good news for consumers.
If we want to purchase a car or appliance, for example, there are countless websites displaying consumer reviews from people who purchased the same item. These review sites help us make informed choices for our consumer decisions.
Increasingly, sites such as RateMDs.com take that process a step further, asking the public to rate their physician. For obvious reasons, reviewing a refrigerator is quite different than reviewing a physician. And the downside: it is all too easy for a patient to bad-mouth his physician in an anonymous and public way. With the click of a mouse, such posts can have a detrimental and permanent effect on the physician’s reputation. (more…)
