Physician Ratings Beyond the Physician

For every great doctor who has many satisfied patients, there is someone who had a less than satisfactory experience, and that is the person who will likely seek out a rating site for his rant. It is important to consider every aspect of physician ratings to help you make a decision.

A hospital is usually a reflection of its medical staff, and knowing with which hospitals a doctor is associated can reveal a lot of vital information. Look past the ratings about the doctor himself, and look into complaints about the hospital that employs the professional. A well-educated professional with ample experience and success is not likely to want to be affiliated with a poorly rated hospital. Furthermore, even if you are satisfied with the care given at the preventative level, you may not wish to receive care in the hospital with which your doctor has privileges.

On these medical rating sites, you can also find your physician’s educational history and the ratings of those educational institutions. Perhaps the one you are considering graduated from a school of medicine that is not familiar to you or that received one star on a five star rating scale. This could be an indication that the doctor you are researching had trouble being accepted to more prominent programs.

When considering ratings, you should also look into other staff with who you will be in contact. A doctor with fine ratings who employs a staff who does not run a timely office or who is hard to reach certainly is not one that you want to give your service if time and prompt service are important to you. Often the most important thing that you need to know about a prospective physician is if he is in-network with your health care provider. This information can also be found on a rating site as well as information detailing issues prior customers may have had with filing and claims services.

If you are able to confirm that a doctor graduated from a top medical school, is affiliated with highly rated facilities, and employs a competent staff, specific complaints about the physician are likely to be isolated. All doctors will have patients with whom they have good relationships and will also have those difficult hard to please patients, and while it is not recommended that you make a choice based solely on the information that you find on a physician rating site, it certainly can lead you in the right direction.