5 Tips for Finding Your Right Doctor Online

One of the most important decisions of our life is finding the right healthcare provider for us and our family members dependent on us. Whether a primary care physician, a specialist or even an Urgent Care Center for a quick visit, we are putting our loved ones' lives in their hand.

Here are some tips to help you select the right healthcare provider for any of your healthcare needs, even when you are far away from home.

1. Find a good doctor in your area

A quick Google search will show you the doctors in your area for any specific specialties you need. You can shortlist the providers based on whether they accept your payment options for their services (health insurance, HMO, etc.) and the geographical distance that you would be willing to cover to see the right provider for your needs.

2. Check your shortlisted doctors’ reputation

The next step should be a quick check of the online reputation of the providers on your list. There are several review platforms where you check healthcare providers’ reputations. Patients' key review platforms to share their experience with healthcare providers are Google, HealthGrades, WebMD, Vitals, RateMD, Yelp, & Facebook. Ensure that you have a good picture of how patients rate the providers by checking reviews on more than one platform because very few providers have reviews on all platforms.

3. What to look for when analyzing a doctor’s reputation?

The factors to look for are:

• Average review score - Anything below 4.0 is not good.
• Recency of the reviews – Reviews older than six months may not reflect what to expect from the provider today.
• Number of reviews – Read at least ten recent reviews.
• Sentiment expressed in comments – Make sure that the sentiments expressed by patients’ comments meet your expectation.

4. How to verify a doctor’s qualifications?

It is important to verify the qualifications & experience of physicians on your list before selecting one. You should:

• Verify their board certification online with their registration number.
• Verify their license to practice.
• Check any violation notifications or malpractice claims against the provider.

5. What to consider before scheduling an appointment?

Here is also a quick checklist on what to look for before scheduling an appointment, apart from the doctor:

• The premises must be clean and comfortable.
• The clinic/hospital staff should be courteous. They must be willing to help you out since you are a new patient in their facility.
• The staff and the physician should maintain the timeliness for his patients.

If you use all the tips mentioned above, searching for a good doctor will give you great outputs. However, if you can still not make a decision, use ScoreDoc, a key tool to help patients choose quality healthcare providers. It's an easy-to-access, convenient information source that briefs you about healthcare providers' quality by analyzing online reviews of the providers on all important review platforms.

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Top 12 Doctor Review Sites You Should Be Monitoring

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