“Your Healthcare. Your Choice.”

by Shain Waugh

Since the dawn of time, one of the most critical elements in being satisfied with your health care experience is choosing the right physician. The relationship one has with their health care provider should mean better communication, effective treatment, and life longevity. The challenge that we face today is selecting the right doctor. There is an array of reference sites such as the American Board of Medical Specialties, American Medical Association, Administrators in Medicine, WebMD, Mayo Clinic, etc.

However, these references only provide information on a physician’s qualifications, physical location, specialty of practice, insurance, etc. There is no true method of evaluating a physicians performance besides referrals or viral reporting (word of mouth). In past survey studies of the general public, three out of every five people are unhappy with their current physician and three out of every five people are actively looking for a new physician.

The question for this dialogue is what do we do as a community to become more informed about physician’s medical practices? What are some tactical strategies that you the reader have utilized successfully? Your feedback provides great insight to those of us struggling to address this question each day.