"The results of this study show the criteria currently used by consumers in choosing a physician are poor proxies for clinical quality and thus not well suited for use by patients."
Associations Between Physician Characteristics and Quality of Care - The Commonwealth Fund
According to a report in Archives of Internal Medicine*, if you want to know the quality of care you might receive from a physician -
- Giving the right medication
- Recommending the right treatment plan and/or follow-up
- Recommending the right treatment plan
then you should avoid the uninformative and potentially misleading ratings that rely on:
- Board certification status
- US or international medical school
- History of disciplinary or malpractice action
The good news is that consumer rating of experience of care is much more predictive of quality of care.
How about we start giving the consumer more of a voice in the ratings, using validated tools like John H Wasson's HowsYourHealth.org?
*R. O. Reid, M. W. Friedberg, J. L. Adams et al., "Associations Between Physician Characteristics and Quality of Care," Archives of Internal Medicine, September 13, 2010 170(16):1442–49.
Comments