As reported on HealthLink on Air
Fall 2007

Often patients ask me how they can learn more about specific doctors. They may be looking for a new primary care doctor, or they need a specialist they’ve not seen before and they want to learn more about who their possible choices may be. In other cases they’ve been referred by one doctor to another and want more information.

If you have internet access and like to look things up online, then you are probably familiar with the various doctor ratings websites you can find on the internet. And that’s our topic for today -- the good, the bad and the ugly of doctor ratings websites.

It seems like more of these sites pop up everyday. From DrScore.com to MDNationwide.com to RateMDs to HealthGrades.com and a relative newcomer, UCompareHealthcare.com, soooo…..

Here are some guidelines to help you decide whether you can get credible and useful information from one of the doctor ratings sites:

Some of the sites give credential related information only, such as licensing information, the medical schools a doctor attended, board certifications, and so forth. The medical boards of most states in the US provide these sites. These sites are free to access. You can get plenty of basic information, but not much else.

Other sites include disciplinary information – if a doctor has lost a lawsuit or has a mark against her license, it will be included on those sites. In New York, the department of health provides this information at NYDoctorprofile.com. The site also includes the basics like licensing and board certifications already mentioned.

Still other websites allow patients to rate their experiences with their doctors – and these are the sites you need to be more critical of.

Here’s why: many of the doctor ratings websites are only that – a database of input from patients. The problem is, very few real patients will go online to rate a doctor they are happy with – most will go online to complain. That means, the ratings then will be skewed toward the negative which may not be helpful to you.

Further – for the sites that allow patient ratings, there is nothing to stop a doctor or someone from his staff or family to go online and rate that doctor themselves! There’s nothing objective about that!

Perhaps the best of both worlds are the sites that combine their credentials and licensing facts with patient ratings. Healthgrades.com and UCompareHealthCare.com are examples of these sites. They have formulas they use to account for the extremes of patient ratings, too.

Now – a word about advertising: Unless the ratings site you’re considering is state-sponsored, look carefully to figure out how it makes its money. If you find advertising for any of the doctors, or you figure out that doctors have paid for their ratings – move on. Not all advertising is bad – just be wary of advertising by listed doctors.

Alternatively some sites charge a fee to get their information, and that might be OK. Better to get objective and useful information by paying 8 or 10 dollars, than to get compromised information for free.

Now you know how to review those doctors ratings websites more objectively. Don’t be fooled by those who can’t really give you objective and useful information.

Link here for a master list of ratings websites.

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