The medical profession has been largely insulated from market forces for decades. Third party payer systems ensure that they do not have to compete on price, at least not directly with the people receiving the service.
It has also been taboo for medical professionals to market themselves to the public. Evidently, medical elders decided long ago that the general public was just too stupid to be deciding what constitutes a good doctor.
Well, we're nowhere near eliminating third party payer, but a new website is putting Doctor's reputations with their patients on world wide display. It works much like PayPals "feedback forum". You can search doctors by region and specialty, view or add comments, even add your doctor if he or she is not currently listed. Doctors are given an overall quality rating between 1 and 5 and judged on staff, punctuality, helpfulness and knowledge.
No longer do you have to base your choice of doctor, dentist or other medical professionals on the certificates displayed on their wall. No longer do you have to wait until you've been harmed to find out that a doctor's not very good at his job. No longer are you totally without recourse when a doctor keeps you waiting for hours because he or she overbooked. I hope we see a lot more of this type of service in the future.
Kudos to RateMDs.com for bringing some common sense back to health care.
Note: This is not a paid or solicited endorsement and I have no vested interest in RateMDs.com
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