How to Choose a Doctor

How to check credentials

Doctors, like schoolchildren, are increasingly being put to the test. Experts have developed practice guidelines detailing how physicians should address everything from basic preventive care to complex chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure and diabetes. Researchers are even starting to measure how well doctors manage their practices, gathering data, for example, on how quickly patients can get an appointment and how long they are kept waiting once they have one.

Gordon Moore, M.D., a Rochester, N.Y., physician who has researched what makes primary health care effective, says he would like to see "all this information listed right there in the waiting room for everyone to see, so that patients can make wise consumer choices and know how good their doctor is at treating the health problem they're concerned about." While this may become a reality some day, for now finding the right doctor for you involves cobbling together information from a variety of sources, including your own observations and interactions with your doctor.

Health-care quality organizations- notably the nonprofit National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) now gather data on how well doctors in managed-health-care plans follow practice guidelines. Then they use the results to grade those organizations. (To see how your health plan and others in your area fare, go to www.healthchoices.org.) Experts hope that eventually the grades will extend all the way down to practice groups and even individual physicians.

Some health-insurance plans provide information for members on the educational and professional background and specialty certification of participating physicians, so you should start there. Also consult these general Web sites:


Free

Administrators in Medicine (www.docfinder.org). Information on licensing and disciplinary actions taken against doctors in 18 states; links to state medical boards of remaining states.

American Board of Medical Specialties (www.abms.org). Board certification means the person has completed an approved residency program and passed a detailed written exam in at least one of 24 specialty areas, such as family practice, internal medicine, or obstetrics and gynecology.

American Medical Association DoctorFinder (webapps.ama-assn.org/doctorfinder). Comprehensive information, including educational history, board certification, and hospital admitting privileges, for the 40 percent of doctors who belong to the AMA.


Paid

Consumers Checkbook Guide to Top Doctors (www.checkbook.org). Searchable database ($24.95 for a two-year subscription) of the top-rated doctors in 30 fields based on a survey of about 260,000 physicians. You can also receive a print copy by mail for the same price.

Federation of State Medical Boards Physician Profiles (www.docinfo.org). Disciplinary sanctions, education, licensure history, and practice locations for U.S.-licensed physicians and some physicians' assistants. All information ($9.95 per doctor report) comes from the group's comprehensive, nationally consolidated data bank.

HealthGrades (www.healthgrades.com). Reports on doctors, at $17.95 apiece, including education and training, board certification, professional misconduct or disciplinary actions, and satisfaction scores from patients.