Physician Editorial: Criteria for Evaluating Physicians is 'Artificial'

Newer proposed criteria for patients evaluation of physicians is "artificial" and can lead to unwanted changes in patient care, wrote Jerold Kreisman, MD, associate clinical professor at St. Louis University, in an STL Today editorial.

"In order for the doctor to be rewarded as 'more efficient' (read, 'cheaper'), she must eschew newer, costlier medications," he wrote. "He must also avoid 'rule-out' procedures, such as a C-T scan following a concussion that would eliminate the possibility of a rare but potential complication. Will this 'efficient' physician be more vulnerable to lawsuits because she didn't 'rule out' the underlying disease? I have been mildly offended when a patient exhorts, 'treat me like I was your mother (or spouse, or you),' implying that I would withhold my best treatment from any patient. Yet, if financial considerations affect reimbursement, such appeals might be justified."

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