Most patients would recommend a doctor

Most German patients would recommend their doctor

09/07/2013

According to a recent evaluation of the rating portal „White list“ Most German patients seem to be satisfied with their doctors. It was determined which physicians were recommended the most and that orthopedists, dermatologists and accident surgeons performed rather poorly.

85 percent would recommend a doctor
Apparently, most German patients are satisfied with their home and specialist doctors. About 85 percent of them would recommend their doctor. This is the result of the evaluation of around 250,000 patient evaluations published on Friday in the physician evaluation portals of the „White List“ and by AOK, Barmer GEK and Techniker Krankenkasse (TK). Family doctors are doing particularly well. Internists (89 percent) and general practitioners (88 percent), followed by urologists (87 percent), received the best referral rates.

Dermatologists and orthopedists perform worse
Dermatologists (62 percent), orthopedists (64 percent) and trauma surgeons (67 percent) ended up at the bottom of the evaluation. However, just under two-thirds of the respondents still considered their doctor to be the best from those disciplines that were the worst. However, there are significant differences among the individual doctors in a specialty. For example, every tenth orthopedist only has a referral rate of less than 40 percent among his patients. On the other hand, one third of them are recommended by 80 to 100 percent of their own patients.

The „White list“
The „White list“ is a joint project of the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the umbrella organizations of large patient and consumer organizations. Among other things, it should help patients in finding a suitable doctor. For the current analysis, the „White list“ all questionnaires completed by June 2013 evaluated. Participating patients must register with their health insurance in order to rate a doctor. This is possible for insured persons of Barmer GEK, TK and AOK. Only physicians who have been receiving treatment for the past 12 months should be evaluated. It is asked about the practice organization, the communication of the doctor, the treatment and an overall impression.

No objective values
The „White list“ Like other review portals, it can not compare objective values ​​that could provide information about the quality of the doctors. The portal tries with indirect questions about the treatment to get hints on eg negligent communication or treatment. In this way the participants can answer in different grades, from „That is completely right“ up to „not correct at all.“ So is the opinion about: „The doctor regularly inquires about the tolerability of the prescribed medication. "Or to: „I have the impression that the doctor will refer you to a specialist or specialist if this is medically necessary. "At least five patients must have a doctor evaluated before the information about the physician is published.

Communication of the doctor important
Most likely, a potential referral seems to be influenced by how well the doctor communicates, responding to questions, fears, and concerns. Internists and general practitioners are doing the best and dermatologists and orthopedic surgeons are again at the bottom. For the patients it is important whether the doctor takes time for the treatment and thoroughly examines it. On the other hand, the practice organization is less important.

Doctors urge hedgehog services
At 17 percent, more than one in six respondents feels pressured by the assessed doctor to use so-called hedgehog services. These are diagnostic and health services that are not listed in the catalog of benefits of health insurance and therefore need to be paid out of pocket. In this area ophthalmologists lead with 37 percent before the orthopedic surgeon with 27 percent. No hedgehog performance should be rushed. Medical practices improve their economic situation through the offers. So the patient becomes a potential buyer and the doctor becomes a seller. If such a service is offered, consideration should always be given to this. This can be used, for example, to obtain independent information about the meaning and nonsense of the treatment.

Not representative
The analysis also found that the majority of patients trusted to be referred by their doctor to a specialist in good time (94 percent). However, there is still room for improvement in the exchange of findings between different doctors (77 percent satisfaction). However, the survey is not considered to be representative of the total population, among other things because the random sample is random. In the survey, all physicians with the name General Medicine, Practical Physicians, Physicians and Internal Medicine are general practitioners. Only subjects with at least 1,000 ratings were included. (Ad)