Top Web Sites on Doctor Ratings and Reviews

Years ago, most people found a physician by asking their neighbors and friends for recommendations – and they often stayed with their physician for many years. Today, because of health insurance plans, societal mobility, and other factors, patients are seeking new methods for finding and vetting their doctors.

Physician-rating Web sites help patients research whether a doctor is board-certified, their educational history, office hours, accepted insurance providers, and other information.

These sites also allow doctors’ patients and former patients to sound off on their experiences. Some doctors do not like these Web sites, because posted opinions are often anonymous and tend to skew toward the negative. Patients who have had a bad experience are more likely to write about it than those who haven’t. Keep this in mind as your review these sites.

◦  AMA DoctorFinder

◦  RateMDs.com

◦  MDNationWide Physician Ratings

◦  Book Of Doctors

◦  HealthGrades.com

◦  Angie's List > Health

Also it is good to know that doctors won't post signs on their office doors to inform you of their disciplinary infractions or the number of malpractice claims they've paid. But you need to know.

Get the Truth: Go to www.docboard.org —a site with a searchable database from 15 state medical boards and links to the databases of the other 36 boards. If a practitioner you like has been reprimanded, ask him about it. "If a doctor refuses to answer questions about his background or about whether or not patients have sued him, you should run," says Dan Fee, a spokesman for Citizens for Fairness, a coalition of patients'-rights groups.

Recommended Reading about Physician Ratings:

◦  Physician's Weekly: Online Physician Rating Systems are Gathering Speed and Generating Controversy

◦  Modern Medicine Blog: Online Physician Ratings: Have you Been Praised--or Panned--on Angie's List Yet?

◦  IHealthBeat: Physician Rating Web sites Draw Praise, Criticism From Industry

◦  Physician Entrepreneur Blog: Physician Rating System Supported by NY Attorney General Cuomo

◦  American Academy of Family Physicians: Using Qualitative Self-Evaluation in Rating Physician Performance