I just recently posted about Vitals.com, the doctor grading website I'm using, and today I read a related article on Foxnews. It seems many doctors are refusing care to patients unless a waiver is signed. The waiver denies the patient the right to critique the doctor on Vitals and related doctor grading websites.
According to the article, around 300 doctors in my state already require the waiver which affirms that the patient "'will not denigrate, defame, disparage or cast aspersions upon' their doctors or post comments to any Web pages by name or anonymously".
Best quote:
"'I think the real problem is that the info may not be all that useful,' said Dr. Wendy Mariner, a law professor and director of the Patients' Rights Program at Boston University. 'Patients may be able to evaluate whether a physician is responsive, courteous, on time, provides useful info to the patient,' she said, but they cannot judge the most important issues concerning medical care."
Ha, ha, ha.
I can't judge the most important issues concerning medical care?!
Au contraire, Dr. Mariner, the patient is the best judge of medical care. We are on the receiving end of medical "care" which is often demeaning, chauvinistic, mediocre, or downright reprehensible. Most patients know that a good doctor is worth his or her weight in gold and any means that allows us to separate the chaff from the grain is a blessing indeed.
That doesn't surprise me that doctors don't want to be evaluated. Any good physician will not be afraid of it as they know that you cannot make everyone happy. Any intelligent person reading it should know the same thing. A few bad reports does not make a bad doctor. However, just like the hotel reviews I read on booking.com, a lot of bad reviews is noteworthy.