New Web Site Seeks More Reliable Comparisons Of Doctors
"If you want to go to dinner or see a movie, it's easy to find reviews and make a reasonably informed choice. If you're choosing a doctor, it can be hard to tell," NPR reports. Patient Central, a new Web site by Consumers' Checkbook, "is trying to help fix that problem" by collecting information about patient experiences with doctors and rating the physicians performance. Consumers' Checkbook rates service industries "like mechanics and plumbers."
Similar Web sites already exist for rating doctors, but they sometimes base their analysis on subjective, small samplings, Checkbook's founder claims. By contrast, the new rating site will aggregate thousands of patient responses to surveys. Insurers provided patient and doctor names to the group, which conducted broad surveys. The site opened pilot versions in Denver, Memphis and Kansas City in July (Kestenbaum, 8/14).