Oct 23, 2008 11:56 pm US/Eastern
Patients Go On Line To Grade Doctors
Medics Warn Ratings Can Be Unfair, Misleading
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
When you buy a car or a TV, chances are you do a little research on-line. In our interactive society, many of us also offer our feedback. Now the same approach is being applied to finding a doctor.
When it comes to going to the doctor, Nancy Foreman hasn't always had positive experiences.
"I've had a couple of negative," Foreman said. "One was with a doctor where I had actually broken my toe, and he told me my toe was healed when it wasn't."
Now Nancy logs on before she makes any appointments. There are a growing number of Web sites that allow patients to review physicians anonymously.
"People want to know what they are buying ahead of time," said John Swapceinski of
ratemds.com.
Swapceinski's Web site gets more than 500,000 hits a month. He believes constructive feedback can help doctors improve, as well as empower patients.
"It can give you a lot of insight into whether you think this will be a doctor who would meet your needs or not," he said.
Patients report on issues such as bedside manner, wait time and accuracy of diagnosis. Some sites have you numerically rate the doctor, while others allow a more personal evaluation.
But many doctors believe these reviews can be unfair and misleading.
Dr. Nancy Nielsen, president of the
American Medical Association, said consumers have no idea who is behind these ratings.
"You don't know whether that person is even a patient of the doctor they are rating," Nielsen said.
Several of these sites have received calls from doctors who say they've been maligned. They do have legal rights if someone goes too far, even if it's done anonymously.
"If you do defame someone, or say something untrue and harmful on a website, your identity could be revealed through a legal process," Rebecca Jeschke of the Electronic Frontier Foundation explained.
Courts have ordered www.ratemds.com to turn over I-P addresses, but it has never been forced to take a claim down.
"Of all of the feedback on the site, about 70 percent of it is positive, and only about 30 percent is negative," Swapceinski said.
Some sites do screen content and will remove either outrageous postings or ones filled with profanity.
Still, having access to this information is something that Nancy Foreman finds useful.
"It's very helpful in weeding out the good from the bad doctors," she said.
Here are some of the more popular rating sites:
ratemds.com nursesrecommenddoctors.com
drscore.com
doctorscorecard.com vitals.com
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