This article raises an excellent question, "How to find a good doctor?" Some thoughts below.
I think before we make a decision of “finding a good doctor,” we need to ask the following two questions:
1. What characteristics make a good doctor?
2. What do I want from my doctor?
The first one is a little easier to answer, but harder to find all the qualities in a single person. Example of some qualities are:
- Compassionate
- Smart and knowledgeable
- Up to date with current literature
- Balances science with art of medicine
- Good communicator
Some doctors are very smart & knowledgeable but may not be good communicators or rushed & hurried. Others may be very compassionate & good listeners while not managing the medical problems in a timely manner.
The question, "What do I want in my doctor?" is one that people often don't ask themselves. Personally, I take a very conservative approach and make this clear to patients when I first meet them. However, new patients who have heard good things about me sometimes come in asking for referrals for conditions like hypertension and diabetes—only to become upset when I explain that we can manage these conditions in our office.
Another ignored aspect of finding a good doctor is the office staff. The doctor may be excellent, but if the office staff is rude, negligent or unresponsive it often negates the point of having a good doctor.
Last but not least, our broken healthcare system often takes good doctors and places them in bad situations, leading to mediocre performance. How often do we see a doctor's office get bought out by a large system, only for the quality of care to decline? (I write about about these issues www.pcplens.com)
By the way, publications listing top doctors are completely useless and are advertisements in disguise. As a private practice owner, every year I get calls from 1-2 (smaller) publications asking if I want to be listed as a top doc for a fee.
Online reviews rarely reflect the quality of care provided. Upset individuals are often more motivated to leave negative reviews. Due to HIPAA regulations, doctors cannot provide context or respond, which can make them appear negligent. Additionally, some patients threaten doctors or office staff with bad reviews if their demands are not met, leading to an increasing trend of online bullying directed at healthcare professionals.
A more recent, personal observation on Healthgrades and similar physician rating services: I had finally gotten to the point that I needed two total knee replacements (TKRs). Now, I have very good research and technical skills -- certainly far above the average patient. I could certainly find some data on specific surgeons, but the number of reviews/ratings were low. It was exceedingly difficult to try to figure out what type of prosthetic to get, let alone what brand to select. To top it off, knee surgeons only install one or two models.
After days of research, I ended up selecting the son of a surgeon who had operated on our son for hip dysplasia 30 years earlier! He did fine (though I did have a rare misadventure on my second knee when they fractured my tibial plateau when pounding in the prosthetic...and then I woke up mid-surgery to see my open knee in the surgeon's monitor!). Things turned out okay, but my surgeon was *much* more attentive post-op than he was for the first TKR, as I'm sure he thought I might sue him. I can't do all the things I did before surgery, but I can still hang with Gary on the pickleball court (sort of)!
I was the CTO for the largest teleradiology company in the world back in 2007-10. We had radiologists who could whip through 100+ CT scans in an hour, and others who could only complete 6-12. You would think that the "rapid rads" had poorer quality, but you would be wrong. They were actually a sort of savant, in that they had reviewed tens of thousands of scans and had created a very repeatable "read, review & comment" process (with heavy reliance on keystroke macros) that worked for them. We had a comprehensive quality review process where other senior rads would review a sample of everyone's reads, plus in-depth investigation into any reads questioned by customers (hospital ERs in this case). Interestingly, if you asked our ~150 rads who the best readers were, they would list the ones who were highly credentialed, vocally opinionated, or had graduated from a notable medical college. In fact, there was only a moderate correlation with education and certifications.
Milan,Italy. Doctors are chosen from the list at public health service for your area. Many are retiring, so I picked one who looked young and walking distance - that's it. When my daughter was born and we had to pick a paediatrician (Italian system is that until 14y one can't be seen by a normal doctor but need a paediatrician), we picked the closest one, walking distance. The paediatrician at some point prescribed homeopathic suppositories for teething, and we changed paediatrician. Normally (I am prof in a med school) if a doc prescribes homeopathy or supplements/vitamins it's a red flag
I am looking for doctors who share decisions with me. (Gary knows just how hard that really is!) Doctors who list your treatment choices and then say "It's your decision," are not doing their job. They are abandoning you. Doctors who say, ""Take these drugs/surgery/procedure and see you in six months," are not giving you the opportunity to participate in your treatment.
I want a doctor who lays out the options, responds when I ask what the possible side effects are and how much evidence there is for the drug/surgery/procedure being effective, and then asks me questions like, "How would you feel if you decide to take this drug etc and you have a serious side effect?" Or conversely, how would you feel if you don't get that mammogram and develop breast cancer? Just to take one example. So far, all of my Kaiser doctors have been more than willing to engage with me in these kinds of conversations, even if they don't initiate them in the way they probably should.
To help my loved one select inpatient treatment for alcoholism, I turned to the Austin Reddit group. I didn’t know it at the time, but there are many people in recovery in this town, and they did an amazing job answering my query. After that, I had to pair it down to those on the list that took his insurance.
Meanwhile, the local hospitals and ERs my loved one was cycling in and out of would hand him a bland pamphlet with a long list of numbers and no indications of which ones might work best for him. The one social worker I met was useless.
Thanks for leaving this comment, Joy. Your Reddit experience is noteworthy. I invite other readers to visit Joy's Substack page, "The Shrieking Cactus" for some moving accounts of her brother's story. https://shriekingcactus.substack.com
I find top ( excellent) Docs refer to other top docs. If you have a good primary care doctor that has been in the medical community for awhile you are probably in good hands. I’ve had VIP patients who “ self refer” to doctor specialists based on prestige or ads or higher cost and they are often disappointed. The patient who asks me, “ would you see him/her yourself” asks a wise question. I only refer to people I’d send a family member to. So the big challenge is finding the right primary care doctor.
This is a great topic! My experience finding the best doctors has been word of mouth. I know that’s totally unscientific, but it has repeatedly been a successful strategy for me.
This article raises an excellent question, "How to find a good doctor?" Some thoughts below.
I think before we make a decision of “finding a good doctor,” we need to ask the following two questions:
1. What characteristics make a good doctor?
2. What do I want from my doctor?
The first one is a little easier to answer, but harder to find all the qualities in a single person. Example of some qualities are:
- Compassionate
- Smart and knowledgeable
- Up to date with current literature
- Balances science with art of medicine
- Good communicator
Some doctors are very smart & knowledgeable but may not be good communicators or rushed & hurried. Others may be very compassionate & good listeners while not managing the medical problems in a timely manner.
The question, "What do I want in my doctor?" is one that people often don't ask themselves. Personally, I take a very conservative approach and make this clear to patients when I first meet them. However, new patients who have heard good things about me sometimes come in asking for referrals for conditions like hypertension and diabetes—only to become upset when I explain that we can manage these conditions in our office.
Another ignored aspect of finding a good doctor is the office staff. The doctor may be excellent, but if the office staff is rude, negligent or unresponsive it often negates the point of having a good doctor.
Last but not least, our broken healthcare system often takes good doctors and places them in bad situations, leading to mediocre performance. How often do we see a doctor's office get bought out by a large system, only for the quality of care to decline? (I write about about these issues www.pcplens.com)
By the way, publications listing top doctors are completely useless and are advertisements in disguise. As a private practice owner, every year I get calls from 1-2 (smaller) publications asking if I want to be listed as a top doc for a fee.
Online reviews rarely reflect the quality of care provided. Upset individuals are often more motivated to leave negative reviews. Due to HIPAA regulations, doctors cannot provide context or respond, which can make them appear negligent. Additionally, some patients threaten doctors or office staff with bad reviews if their demands are not met, leading to an increasing trend of online bullying directed at healthcare professionals.
A more recent, personal observation on Healthgrades and similar physician rating services: I had finally gotten to the point that I needed two total knee replacements (TKRs). Now, I have very good research and technical skills -- certainly far above the average patient. I could certainly find some data on specific surgeons, but the number of reviews/ratings were low. It was exceedingly difficult to try to figure out what type of prosthetic to get, let alone what brand to select. To top it off, knee surgeons only install one or two models.
After days of research, I ended up selecting the son of a surgeon who had operated on our son for hip dysplasia 30 years earlier! He did fine (though I did have a rare misadventure on my second knee when they fractured my tibial plateau when pounding in the prosthetic...and then I woke up mid-surgery to see my open knee in the surgeon's monitor!). Things turned out okay, but my surgeon was *much* more attentive post-op than he was for the first TKR, as I'm sure he thought I might sue him. I can't do all the things I did before surgery, but I can still hang with Gary on the pickleball court (sort of)!
I was the CTO for the largest teleradiology company in the world back in 2007-10. We had radiologists who could whip through 100+ CT scans in an hour, and others who could only complete 6-12. You would think that the "rapid rads" had poorer quality, but you would be wrong. They were actually a sort of savant, in that they had reviewed tens of thousands of scans and had created a very repeatable "read, review & comment" process (with heavy reliance on keystroke macros) that worked for them. We had a comprehensive quality review process where other senior rads would review a sample of everyone's reads, plus in-depth investigation into any reads questioned by customers (hospital ERs in this case). Interestingly, if you asked our ~150 rads who the best readers were, they would list the ones who were highly credentialed, vocally opinionated, or had graduated from a notable medical college. In fact, there was only a moderate correlation with education and certifications.
Milan,Italy. Doctors are chosen from the list at public health service for your area. Many are retiring, so I picked one who looked young and walking distance - that's it. When my daughter was born and we had to pick a paediatrician (Italian system is that until 14y one can't be seen by a normal doctor but need a paediatrician), we picked the closest one, walking distance. The paediatrician at some point prescribed homeopathic suppositories for teething, and we changed paediatrician. Normally (I am prof in a med school) if a doc prescribes homeopathy or supplements/vitamins it's a red flag
I am looking for doctors who share decisions with me. (Gary knows just how hard that really is!) Doctors who list your treatment choices and then say "It's your decision," are not doing their job. They are abandoning you. Doctors who say, ""Take these drugs/surgery/procedure and see you in six months," are not giving you the opportunity to participate in your treatment.
I want a doctor who lays out the options, responds when I ask what the possible side effects are and how much evidence there is for the drug/surgery/procedure being effective, and then asks me questions like, "How would you feel if you decide to take this drug etc and you have a serious side effect?" Or conversely, how would you feel if you don't get that mammogram and develop breast cancer? Just to take one example. So far, all of my Kaiser doctors have been more than willing to engage with me in these kinds of conversations, even if they don't initiate them in the way they probably should.
To help my loved one select inpatient treatment for alcoholism, I turned to the Austin Reddit group. I didn’t know it at the time, but there are many people in recovery in this town, and they did an amazing job answering my query. After that, I had to pair it down to those on the list that took his insurance.
Meanwhile, the local hospitals and ERs my loved one was cycling in and out of would hand him a bland pamphlet with a long list of numbers and no indications of which ones might work best for him. The one social worker I met was useless.
Thanks for leaving this comment, Joy. Your Reddit experience is noteworthy. I invite other readers to visit Joy's Substack page, "The Shrieking Cactus" for some moving accounts of her brother's story. https://shriekingcactus.substack.com
I find top ( excellent) Docs refer to other top docs. If you have a good primary care doctor that has been in the medical community for awhile you are probably in good hands. I’ve had VIP patients who “ self refer” to doctor specialists based on prestige or ads or higher cost and they are often disappointed. The patient who asks me, “ would you see him/her yourself” asks a wise question. I only refer to people I’d send a family member to. So the big challenge is finding the right primary care doctor.
This is a great topic! My experience finding the best doctors has been word of mouth. I know that’s totally unscientific, but it has repeatedly been a successful strategy for me.