Comments on: How do I judge physician excellence?

By: What is quality – a reader asks | DB’s Medical Rants

What is quality – a reader asks | DB’s Medical Rants — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:26:19 +0000

[...] T suggests, albeit implicitly, that physicians who have overall excellent quality will have excellent samples of quality as measured through performance metrics. I wrote 2 years ago about my opinion of excellence. How do I judge physician excellence? [...]

By: How to insure quality | DB’s Medical Rants

How to insure quality | DB’s Medical Rants — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:25:27 +0000

[...] I have written about this often in the past. Please reread this "classic" post – How do I judge physician excellence? [...]

By: PCB

PCB — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:01:30 +0000

outcomes are great, just make sure you’re measuring them accurately and realizing a “good” outcome may be defined differently by different patients. Is quantity of life the desired outcome? Quality of life? Do monetary concerns matter for the patient, or are they relatively inconsequential? Are the side effects of the treatment no big deal or a dealbreaker?

These are individual issues for the patient. Defining quality without taking unique patient preferences into account is simplistic and misleading.

By: Steve Lucas

Steve Lucas — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:06:19 +0000

Judy,

As a patient I have learned there is a difference between good medicine and patient outcomes. Often we desire the best possible outcome, and even with the best medical care this is not achieved. This is not a free pass for doctors to practice sloppy medicine, but the recognition that there are limits to medical knowledge.

The converse of this is that even with poor medical treatment some people will recover from their illness. We need to also recognize that standards of care are constantly changing and what is good today may be considered poor in the future.

Doctors hate to recognize that you can only do what you can do. Recent posts on this blog have focused on medication levels. My personal reality is that practicing “good medicine,” and practicing to the standards of the time, doctors would have killed me a long time ago.

Steve Lucas

By: Judy B.

Judy B. — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:05:35 +0000

How about outcome for the patient? That seems to me the best indicator but then what do I know – I’m just a patient……