Jul 17, 2008
Doctor Doctor
Just spotted this on PR Media Blog – a social media site allowing NHS patients to rate their doctor. The BMA aren’t too happy and I have to agree with them.
PMB compares it to Trip Advisor and Toptable and claims it will be a good way of making doctors consider what their patients think of them, in turn resulting in a better level of care.
However, the issue here should be apparent to anyone who has ever used Trip Advisor or Toptable. If I am planning to go on a once in a lifetime holiday and want to ensure I stay in the best hotel possible then all it takes is one bad review to put me off. It could have read 99 great reviews but I don’t want to run the risk of having the experience of the one person who had cockroaches crawling through their scrambled eggs in the morning.
It’s the same with doctors. We put our well-being in their hands, something that is quite a high priority for most and therefore we demand the highest level of care – and (if we are rating medical professionals) this means 100%! Can you imagine the admin involved if patients can see what others think of their doctor and then have the luxury of demanding to change who they are seen by? Let alone the added work-load put on doctors with a 100% rating!
The hotels don’t mind – the more the merrier. But the doctors will.
Of course, ignorance is bliss but I do believe there should be a level of trust instilled in a profession that we all rely on. If doctors have to start considering what their people think of them then patient care could fall by the wayside. I would rather a doctor focused on what he or she did best which is helping people rather than try and be your best friend.
Hi Adam
Apologies, I was being flippant when I compared with Trip Advisor but serious about discussing the idea of the medical profession being a bit more responsive to patients and how they deal with them.
I would also trust people to use different midset when using social media to make judgements about medical care versus a hotel.
The bureaucracy involved is ….already involved. The govt’s strategy, as I understand it, is to give people the choice about where to go for treatment and who to be seen by. In order to do this we need info on waiting times, success rates and the quality of the overall care.
Hi Mark – no apology necessary at all (apart from getting my name wrong).
I played on your TripAdvisor comparison simply to make my point but understand you weren’t making a direct comparison.
I agree with you that consumers will use a different mindset but in my opinion it will be a more partisan one. We’ve all had bad experiences in hotels and restaurants but rarely feel the need to share those experiences with others. But if I had a particularly negative or even slightly unenjoyable experience with a doctor there would be a sense of obligation to tell others.
It’s rare that people walk away from a GPs surgery with the warm glow that compells people to praise the hotels, restaurants, bars etc (we need a better comparison). You are much more likely to only feedback on a doctor’s performance if it is negative – a positive one should be considered a given.