How to Find Out if Your Doctor Is Good for You

On the heels of the big news that medical errors are now the third leading cause of the death in the United States, we thought it might be appropriate to write about the information available to you when choosing a doctor. Unfortunately, the type of information that patients have access to concerning healthcare providers boils down to, essentially, “not very much.”

Defining the problem

While the National Practitioner Data Bank was created to log information about doctors around the country, the data it collects is not available to the public. In fact, there is no real central clearinghouse for information, and thus finding out about your doctor’s experience and past incidents is a bit more complicated than one-stop-shopping.

Because it is so difficult to research your doctor, the information that is publicly available often lacks context. You may find that your doctor has multiple medical malpractice claims against him or her, but not that those separate claims were made by one person after an incident 20 years ago. Alternatively, you may be unable to discover that your doctor paid 40 malpractice claims because of unnecessarily broad non-disclosure agreements. Forbes recently covered the issue admirably; read the full article here.

We said difficult, not impossible

There are tools that can help. While none of these options are foolproof, they are a good place to start to get an idea of the quality of care you can expect from a particular doctor. Start with your insurance provider; often, you can find basic information like education and areas of practice. Check your state medical board’s website; they often allow you to search for a physician’s licenses and may list information about disciplinary actions or paid malpractice claims. Unfortunately, they do not list information about pending claims.
Healthgrades.com is free resource that contains fairly comprehensive information about most doctors and hospitals. It is likely the best tool in the arsenal, but even this service can’t provide a complete and current picture. The most comprehensive tool available to the general public might be docinfo.org. The tool is a service of Federation of State Medical Boards, and will provide a complete profile of a particular physician’s entire license history for a fee.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees. The information that would enable patients to make informed decisions is just not available, and until it is, medical errors and medical malpractice will continue to affect hundreds of thousands of people every year. If you or a loved one has been a victim of a medical error or professional negligence, you may be entitled to compensation. The experienced South Carolina medical malpractice attorneys at McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC, can evaluate your case and help get you the compensation you deserve. Contact us or call 803-327-7800 today for a free consultation.