Doctor Ratings: Improving Health Care

There are many factors to consider when reading doctor ratings. They are helpful when looking at physician reviews because many will give an overall number or letter to demonstrate the doctor's overall skill. Many times it can be difficult to decide which doctor is best based on simple side-by-side comparisons. However, physician reviews can make the process less complicated.

Patient reviews give an unbiased review of the doctor’s overall skill. Many times physicians can go online and create their own doctor ratings and reviews, which do not help new patients have a understanding of the physician's skill. Furthermore, many of the physician reviews available online can use a lot of medical terminology and information that the patient may not understand. Instead, a specific physician rating can eliminate some of this confusion by using terms the patient can better understand to know which physician can best handle their health care.

With its honest approach and basic breakdown of a physician's overall performance, physician reviews can sometimes be detrimental to the physician's practice. This can be especially true if the patient chooses a physician based on the rating, rather than actually investigating some of the factors that may have been an affect on the doctor's rating. Sometimes these reviews might be based on the patient reviews, and if the patient gives a biased review, this can have an overall effect on the physician rating. Many patients do not have the medical expertise to give a good rating and consequently, many doctors find fault in the patient's ability to assess their practices. Many times patients will base their rating on a personal experience with the physician without knowing what to look for in a good physician. Unfortunately, the physician will have very little recourse in the event of a bad rating and some doctors fear there may be some profound affect on their practice. However, these doctor ratings are a good way for doctors to improve their services. Many physicians argue that patient participation in physician reviews will encourage physician's to make improvement in the way they practice. While many physicians will have a prestigious education background and years of experience, if they are not professional with their patients, it will be difficult to receive good physician reviews.

There are many benefits to doctor ratings. Since many are written by patients, this can give an unbiased and more in-depth review of the physician's professionalism in addition to the basic information. Although many patients may not have the medical expertise to give an unbiased review, physician reviews allow the patient to make an anonymous review in the event they may have had a bad experience with the physician. This type of review system also encourages many physicians to make improvements in their practice. In turn, doctor ratings help encourage a better health care system because there is more information available to the general public about the doctor's expertise and professionalism.