I’m supposed to be getting a minor operation. I have the names of some doctors who are listed as performing this operation but I have no knowledge of any of them beyond their names. Is there a convenient site where I can read easily comprehensible reviews of their medical abilities?
Know any nurses? We always know which surgeons are the good ones - they’re the ones all the nurses go to. Make friends with a couple of nurses or find other people who have had your procedure and ask them how things went. How good they are often has little to do with where they trained or if they are chief of their department. It has more to do with how many times they have performed that procedure and how conscientious they are. I wouldn’t put much stock in a site like the one you are looking for. Of course, this is just IMHO.
This sounds like “Truckers know the best places to eat” - not an especially reliable source. Non-OR nurses are not likely to have the best scoop on which surgeons are best, and even the OR nurses may be influenced by factors like which surgeons are nicest to them during procedures (which may not correlate with expertise and good outcomes). And an OR nurse at hospital X may be clueless about who is a good surgeon at hospital Y. (even M.D. colleagues can steer you wrong, as I know from experience).
Bingo. Someone who has done lots of a particular procedure and does so on an ongoing basis is generally a far better bet than a surgeon recently out of training or who seldom does the procedure, no matter how prestigious their training center or how good they are at their regular procedures (this is especially important for complex surgery).*
As for ratings sites, I’d be loath to trust any where there are one or only a few comments about a particular doctor. Samples can be biased by shills or grudge-bearers who post inaccurate information.
Do consider finding out the number of procedures of the type you’re getting that your proposed surgeon(s) have performed and how routinely they do it in current practice.
*with the caveat that a surgeon can have done something lots of times and still be of questionable competence, as experience has also shown me.
You can try Castle Connolly or HealthGrades.
+1
To the OP: As someone who spend a few years in a medical feild, you would be amazed how people percieve “good medicine”. My favorite example was something my ex used to say about one of the docs where she worked (OB). In a nutshell it was “Dr. X is a jerk and everyone hates his guts, but if it was my daughter and my grandchild in distress she would not want anyone else performing an emergency c-section” Thats a hell of a review, coming from someone who has participated in hundreds of such procedures.
Good Doctors, like good lawyers, are going to try to do what is in your best interests, not just what you want them to. Thus skewing alot of perceptions.