As Angry Patients Vent Online, Doctors Sue to Silence Them
Not surprisingly, the Internet, with the power of millions of users online at any given time, created product review sites years ago. It’s not a huge leap to get to “Hot or Not?,” basically a …
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Site last updated: 25 May 2012
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Welcome to the information society.
There have been online review sites for web shops, services and products for many years now.
Many people consult the internet first before they seek treatment.
I think most of these ranting patients don’t feel that their complaints are taken seriously, of course some patients have eunrealistic expectations, but those are merely exceptions.
But according to this paper http://hanson.gmu.edu/feardie.pdf doctors still mess up very often, the medical world really needs to focus more on quality.
It’s not to late for the doctors to start their own website where users can review their treatment. Good doctors have little to fear, they will get more postive reviews and because they control the website themselves they can write a reply in their defense and let the visitor make up their own mind.
I agree with the premise of the site as well as the comments made by this poster.
I believe that as long as a site maintains some professionalism by not allowing personal attacks on the doctor as well as screening for obvious unsuitable postings. that a rating procedure for doctors can be helpful..both for the patient as well as the doctor himself. I have filled out survey’s that doctor’s groups and hospitals send to patients and I find them woefully lacking in anykind of usefullness as a patient: either they are too broad in the questions asked or irrelevant to the reason the doctor was visited. When I select a doctor, I really don’t care about the color of the waiting room walls or the friendliness of the parking attendant. I want to know about the doctor….is he / she friendly. Will she listen to my input…..will she refer me on if she is stumped with my presentation…will she call me back when I leave a message…..does she rely on lab tests or believe more in hands-on examination skills….does she stick with you or is she quick to get you out of her clinic….that type of information. While I believe that the environment can be important to picking a clinic (traffic, parking, waiting time, etc) I do not think that they should be the focus of patient satisfaction survey’s like the Press Gainey ones that are sent to me by my doctor. If anything, I see that as a very negative indicator of what my doctor believes is important in his practice. I hope that doctor rating websites are taken seriously by patients and doctors.
Doctor rating websites could be misleading. Think about it – what is to prevent some insecure unethical doctor from calling out every favor from family and close friends to post false and misleading rave reviews about him or her. A person could rely on that information and end up with a quack.
Of course people could file complaints with the medical board but good luck. Unfortunately, word on the street is that such complaints rarely result in any action against a doctor unless it is SEVERE like losing a limb because they accidentally cut off the wrong one, or dying – if that.
The brotherhood of any board is hard to beat. Whether a medical board, legal board, nursing board or school board. They are blood brethren who take up for each other. We have heard it is extremely difficult to get a doctor to testify against another doctor, lest they become known as a snitch among their brethren.
We created our own website after a nightmare incarceration at a local hospital. We asked too many questions and Dr. “Hell” didn’t like it.
The INTERNET is the “poor” man’s way of getting the world out. So spread the word. It might be a good idea to change the names to protect the corrupt and guilty parties. But for what it is worth, it is very cathartic and therapeutic to feel like we are doing SOMETHING – ANYTHING. Lawsuits are costly and only for the rich – so be careful not to get sued. People sue these days if they get a dirty look. Especially an insecure doctor.
Once we had the website completed – we made flyers on half sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 and we leave them everywhere we go – malls, restrooms, libraries, pretty much on any counter or bench or board we can find. Every now and then we just hand one to somebody.
We need to air the dirty laundry of the world of Medi-Sin (c) so as to protect and arm future patients with knowledge!! We need to beat these doctors at their game of arrogance.
I hate to believe it but a paralegal made a comment to me the other day that doctors are second only to lawyers for being the most disliked professionals.
Thank you for this website. Wish we had found it long ago when we were battling to get out from underneath “Dr. Hell’s” grip on our carotid artery.
you know, It’s just recently that I have decided I have had ENOUGH of incompetent drs. What I have been thru in my lifetime would shock anyone. What about the dr. who asked the nurse to leave the room than sexually assaulted me saying “nobody will believe you, you are a psych patient”. (I ask myself over and over why a nurse would leave?) and I hold her equally responsible. OR the patient who raped me in a state hospital years ago. I told the nurse and she said “shut up and go back to bed, he does that all the time.” and the medical clinic who JUST fired me from all psych, medical and DENTAL care because I said I was going to report the Therapist I had there who told me, in the middle of a therapy session, while in tears, that her mother “shot herself in the head last november”. I’m over it. I have PTSD and most of the trauma I have been thru lately is the medical profession. NAMI even suggested I sue but well, when it’s hard to keep your life together and now you don’t even have meds or medical care…where do you start? It’s time that we are allowed to share our medical scare stories with the world. they are real. As I am always reminded…”What do they call the person who graduates last in their medical class?” DOCTOR!
and I didn’t even mention the endocrinologist who just last december told me I “HAD” thyroid cancer – without any testing and after 6 months of treatment and I WAS BETTER OFF NOT KNOWING! really? wow. I had an ultrasound done the next day and nope, no cancer. can you imagine if I acted like for the rest of my life – I am 56 – that I was dying of cancer and it didn’t matter – only to find out I never HAD cancer? Should I not tell people that she said that to me? (and btw, I have it recorded. I have a poor memory so I record dr’s appointments. It’s sad to be a psych patient and know you won’t be believed unless you have it recorded…then again, some of it is pretty bizarre. Who but a a psych patient would be fired from all medical and dental care for “threatening” to report an inappropriate Therapist? NOBODY but a psych patient. It’s illegal what they did but it doesn’t matter if I don’t or can’t fight back… very sad. I am glad there is a place I can tell my truth.
I also understand when things are said to intentionally hurt a medical person that you were dating say. that’s just wrong. so, I get both sides.