Receiving four approval seals were 287 physicians, while 71 garnered three seals. Two seals went to 33 doctors and 42 got one. In April, National Research began mailing out the first of 100,000 surveys in Cincinnati to rate 660 physicians. Findings will be on the DoctorGuide Web site in July or August. Some Cincinnati physicians considered mounting an effort to stop the survey, Dean said.
Doctors do want patients to be more informed.
In Portland, angry patients contacted the Oregon Medical Assn. over concerns that their medical information was being handed out. It's legal for health plans to give out names and addresses to a survey company, but no patient information can be made public, Kronenberg said. Besides National Research, other companies gather patient satisfaction information. Some health plans and large physician practices conduct their own surveys. Richmond said National Research's survey is fair and scientifically sound.