But these approaches may miss a critical factor by which physicians are judged – their reputation
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Judging
Physician Quality by Reputation Among Peers
A
doctor’s greatest strength is his or her reputation. We spend our entire
professional lives creating and protecting this precious asset.
Neil
Baum, MD, author Marketing Your Clinical
Practices; Ethically, Economically, 4th Edition
How does one judge quality of a physician’s work? The current fashion is to measure outcomes,
or how often a physician complies with guidelines, or to somehow increase quality by paying-for-performance,
or to do physician satisfaction surveys
, or to consult the growing number of physician ratings systems on the
Internet, or to call the local medical society.
But these approaches may miss a critical factor by which physicians are judged – their reputation
But these approaches may miss a critical factor by which physicians are judged – their reputation
How does one judge a physician’s reputation?
It may be through:
·
word of mouth from patients or
colleagues.
·
the institution with which he or she is
affiliated.
·
number of scientific papers he or she has
published.
·
Angie’s List.
·
health care ratings on the Internet.
·
Online reputation, as defined in Establishing,
Managing, and Protecting Your Online Reputation ( Kevin Pho, MD and Susan
Gay, Greenbranch Publishing, 2013).
·
Participating in social media sites with
judgment by readers.
·
Managing patient expectations, as
explained in Managing Patient Expectations: The Arts of Finding and Keeping Loyal
Patients (Susan Keane Baker, Jossey Bass, 1997).
·
Qualifying as one of Top Doctors in
America, as listed by Castle Connolly
Medical Ltd , publishers of America’s Top
Doctors, America’s Top Doctors for
Cancer, Doctors in New York City Metro Area, or Top Doctor articles in New
York, New Jersey, Westchester, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, Gulf
Shore Love, Boca Life, Palm Springs Life and other magazines across the
country.
Reputation-Based
Quality
The Top Doctors approach is reputation-based. It
uses extensive surveys of physician nationwide . From these surveys, peers identify other doctors as the “best of the
best” A research team reviews credentials , and they are listed in Top Doctor publications or in a newspaper ads.(in
the interest of full-disclosure, I have been on the Medical Advisory Board of
America’s Top Doctors for the last 10 years)
The August 3, 2013, New York
Times contains a full-page ad listing the top 16 doctors in the nation in neurological
specialties. All are affiliated with major hospitals, and 12 of the 16 are
neurosurgeons, with special expertise in brain or spine surgery or certain
brain lesions, Others are
neurologists, neuro-oncology, or interventional neuroradiology.
Is reputation among peers the best way to identify
top doctors? Among physicians, this is considerd a reliable
approach, especially when combined with other quality criteria and extensive review
of credentials.
Tweet: Multiple
approaches exist to identify top physicians , but one of the best is his her reputation
among based on broad surveys among peers.
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