The profession of medicine, like law and education combines learning with practice. The learning period involves acquisition of knowledge and information; the practice involves application of that knowledge for patient, client or student benefit. Clearly, some are better at this than others, and to assume otherwise would be disingenuous.

The free market assumes that ‘we get what we pay for’. To assume that all doctors are created equal means, we can pay less and get more. This is clearly in the interest of managed care. It is not in the best interest of patients – it takes the patient longer to get better, if the diagnosis is incorrect or the therapy inadequate. It is in the patient’s best interest to have an obscure diagnosis made more expeditiously and the treatment started more promptly.

It is not in the best interest of doctors, because he/she is not adequately compensated for the increased amount of time involved in acquiring increased and necessary skills to make more obscure diagnosis and treat more difficult problems. It is in the best interest of doctors to see and do more of what they do best, and refer out patients that might take up too much of their time and end up in frustration for both patient and doctor.

Rating Doctors – What’s in it for the Patient?

Imagine that you are a patient with a simple headache. Left alone, most headaches go away anyway. Any doctor capable of prescribing headache tablets would do, really. Take two aspirins and call me in the morning! If two weeks later, the headache persists or is getting worse, a doctor that is more specialized in headaches, such as a neurologist would suffice. If after multiple tests, the headache persists, then you might need a better neurologist and so on, until the problem is solved and fixed. This is not to imply that the first doctor was useless or inept. Not at all! Merely, that his level of training and skill or interest may not have been up to the more complex problem. Given a decent rating system and access within a free market, you might have opted earlier to see the more highly rated doctor within that field.