“Best”, “Top” Doctor– Not So Fast!
Years ago articles online and in magazines started identify top doctors. Do you remember when it all started? It was a brilliant idea in concept. The premise was a logical one: a service interviewed doctors through surveys to find who among their peers they would send their family to in health situation, which doctors got top reviews by patients, and didn’t have malpractice issues, etc.
Who wouldn’t want to see that? Yes, of course, I was totally interested.
I quickly found out even back then when the lists came out that when I compared doctors in these “great” lists to patient reviews, they didn’t always jive, so I made sure to only pick those with top reviews on multiple sites from those lists. The first time I did that, I was rewarded with a top surgeon, hands down.
Fast forward a decade later, when I search for the best or top doctor, I am bombarded by not just one group doing this now, but many! Many websites claim they have identified the best doctor now.
How does that even make sense?
It absolutely doesn’t, and it’s a huge red flag something is up! You can’t have 10 different lists and have them all valid. And worse, it used to be five or ten doctors per health category. Now the lists are getting longer and longer. It’s raises my eyebrows high!
Logically you can guess these doctors draw in a lot of patients and a large revenue stream. Everyone will want to see them. So it would make sense these lists are lucrative. Very lucrative for doctors and the hospitals/healthcare systems they work for. It’s a gold mine!
So clearly there is a reason for this ideal premise to become corrupt, untrustworthy and flawed and when I dug, there is it! You can read about the homework others have done here and here. They explain it better than I could.
Furthermore, I have noticed two more jaw dropping elements in healthcare. These “top doctors” will take in patients, see them once and then push them off to other less popular, less liked colleagues to keep the revenue going.
I am just experiencing this firsthand right now. I saw a top doctor who billed me over $2.5K for a visit and blood tests (ridiculous!!!), only to suggest before our second visit, another doctor would be good to take over my care. And when I look at the other doctor, she has less experience, doesn’t even specialize in the area of care I am in need due to tests (which my current doctor does). It flat makes no sense except for the hospital to make more money and populate patients from their lucrative revenue stream to those who can’t drive it.
No thank you.
And last, hospitals and healthcare systems have wised up to the power of reviews. They are now controlling them on their own websites, which I have absolutely zero faith in. They can delete any negative review they get–it benefits them to do so!
So when I see reviews, if it comes from patients on a hospital website or a healthcare system, I refuse to even read them! I only trust third party reviews from patients on websites like healthgrades.com. And when you compare the hospital reviews to healthgrades, there are huge differences that should make you aware of what the truth is!