[Squirrel1983]

So I was curious and looked up my pdoc's "rating" on vitals.com I was shocked to see it was mediocre overall. Then I read the rcomments and foiund out why. They were either extremely positive or extremely negative. There was no in between. Some of the negative ones made me laugh because unless my pdoc is outright rude to some patients (he never has been to me), I just can't see what the rater says as being true. Sure, I have had some "issues" (like when it was sprung on me that I would see his nurse practitioner instead of him), but I addressed those issues with him. I didn't go and post a negative comment on a rating site. Sure I posted about some of the issues to Psych Central, but no one knows his name here as I did not supply that when I was getting input. I just find it odd to go and post a bad rating based on one bad experience with a pdoc (or any other doctor for that matter).

I mentioned this to my mother who said, "Well these are mental patients rating him. Can you really trust a crazy person's opinion." This upset me greatly as I took it to mean that anyone who sees a pdoc is crazy in her mind, which means she thinks I am crazy. I did not like that comment one bit.

Anyways...does anyone else find humor in ratings for doctors on those doctor rating sites?

[spiritual_emergency]

I've made use of doctor rating sites and medication rating sites. I find them helpful because you're getting a much larger range of input than you might if you merely asked around in your own private social circle.

What you will be reading at those kinds of sites are people's personal experiences of that particular medication, doctor, or occasionally, clinic or hospital -- positive and negative. That doesn't mean that you will have the exact same experience as someone else did. Zyprexa might be a wonderful drug for one person; it might make the next one wish they were dead.

Same with docs -- a person can have a good fit with a doc and the next person might not. If one doctor is consistently getting bad ratings though, that might indicate someone who isn't a very good doc. I did see one such doc on one site (not a pdoc) who was clearly a really horrible doc. There were so many negative comments from patients and former staff as well, about botched surgeries, cattlecar treatments, highly pressured sales, etc.... anyone who read those comments and still thought they should put their health in that doctors hands would be very, very foolish.

[BlessedRhiannon]

The thing I've found with online rating sites, is that for the most part, it's the people that have had a very negative experience and want to complain somewhere. The people that have had a good experience just keep going, and don't bother to leave ratings. So, I take all ratings with a grain (or shaker) of salt. Plus, what might be a negative for one person could be a positive for another.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Squirrel1983

So I was curious and looked up my pdoc's "rating" on vitals.com I was shocked to see it was mediocre overall. Then I read the rcomments and foiund out why. They were either extremely positive or extremely negative. There was no in between. Some of the negative ones made me laugh because unless my pdoc is outright rude to some patients (he never has been to me), I just can't see what the rater says as being true. Sure, I have had some "issues" (like when it was sprung on me that I would see his nurse practitioner instead of him), but I addressed those issues with him. I didn't go and post a negative comment on a rating site. Sure I posted about some of the issues to Psych Central, but no one knows his name here as I did not supply that when I was getting input. I just find it odd to go and post a bad rating based on one bad experience with a pdoc (or any other doctor for that matter).

I mentioned this to my mother who said, "Well these are mental patients rating him. Can you really trust a crazy person's opinion." This upset me greatly as I took it to mean that anyone who sees a pdoc is crazy in her mind, which means she thinks I am crazy. I did not like that comment one bit.

Anyways...does anyone else find humor in ratings for doctors on those doctor rating sites?

Ive checked out the ratings and with the states licensing board about many medical and mental health providers both for myself and for my clients. I find the ratings online actually reflect what can be found through the state boards.

it doesnt bother me when I find a treatment provider that I see and like contains adverse ratings. I look at it as the saying one shoe doesnt fit every foot. even reading here on psych central I can see a vast diversity of what everyone likes in thier treatment providers.

Some like the kind that are no nonsense, no sugar coating, and have strict rules and boundaries. others find those things in treatment providers to be things like a bad bedside manner, rude, distasteful.

Some people like their treatment providers to be flexible, wording what they want to say in ways the client likes to hear things, and with very few rules and boundaries. other believe this kind of treatment provider is too easy, too much of a push over, I can get away with murder if I had that kind of treatment provider opinions.

every body has their own tastes for what they want in their treatment providers. the ratings are going to reflect this kind of diversity, the good, the bad and the in between.

[Merlin]

My doctor (pdoc) actually asked me to fill out an evaluation for him, as the province regularly gets evaluations from colleagues, staff and patients.