Will google help me in finding a good doctor?
Admittedly, that was long for a heading.
A few weeks before my travel, my mother had fallen sick. I took her to a doctor nearby. The doc hardly saw my mother, asked the nurse to give injection, took 80 bucks as consulting fees, scribbled out medicines for another 100 but the end result was zilch. Eventually i took her to another doctor who charged much less, listened to my mom better, understood the problem and voila my mother was fine in the next few days.
There are some doctors in chennai who charge 300 Rs. for a consultation on common cold and fever, scribble out prescriptions for another 200 Rs which never work whilst there are docs who would not charge more than 40 Rs and yet cure their patients. I want to see more patients coming to the latter and less to the former.
Say, I go to a doctor and find him very reasonable in fees and efffective in his treatment for ailments. I get his contact info (name, phone number and area of operation) and put it in an accessible, manageable online repository. It will be managed by a group of like minded people who have no conflict of interest (no doctors). Sooner or later, we will have a sizeable database of docs with good referrals from the common man.
Once we reach a threshold, we can enter into a tie up with some mobile service provider where people can SMS and get results. The ones with good rating will get good ranking in SMS results. Any negative feedback about a doc will result in lower rating and lower ranking in the results.
To be frank, i started out with docs but i would any day try this for any or all independent service professionals.
With due respects to Google, we necessarily have to find a way to make good use of our personal experiences and build a bank of good independent professionals with their contact information. In short we need our own electronic word of mouth.
My philosophy is this, honesty and good service should result in more business, the sooner it does the better it is for society as a whole.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
PK,
the best treatment for elders is a comprehensive annual check-up(cardiac/thoracic/visual/oral/joints) - monitoring reports on a year by year basis shows which areas have deterioration and are most vulnerable to any stress/infection.
If it’s about elderly parents, it’s better to take them to a private hospital even for small ailments - MBBS practitioners wont care less unless they personally know us.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Talkative,
i’ve had fairly good experiences with MBBS docs but they did eventually come to know me personally. so am not sure they treated me well bcos they knew me or its the other way around.
i cited my mother’s case more as an example… another pain point is finding a good paediatrician..
October 24th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Well..Well..Well…Gone are those days ….unless the Doc is a relative of yours. It’s all business now ! Believe me, several docs. don’t even know if the medicines they prescribe are banned or not. And add to that, all the bribes that the pharma companies give the docs. to prescribe a drug..! The public are scape goats.
I bet it applies to all corners of the Globe.
IMHO - Just do your physicals and pray to God. Eat well , sleep well, stay healthy!
October 24th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
u r exactly right Prabu. even i too experienced a lot like dis. i will tell u 1 such incident.
dat time i was suffered from gastric problem due to over spicy food items which my hostel provided me. due to dis i was not able to eat anything. i always used to take treatment in my native. but dat was tuesday. so i went to a hospital along with my friend. i was waiting 4 such a long time 4 my turn. in the meantime i had a glance of the doctor who was in the duty. dat doctor, she dressed in such a way that she seemed to be an actress. she didnt even touched any patients. i was shocked 2 see her. i worried a lot abot hw she can ask my problems patiently. thank god, she left dat place due 2 her duty time completion. then a sister doctor came & she was very kind & checked me.
October 29th, 2007 at 12:06 am
NV sir,
i agree. but i see no no reason why this can’t work.
kalai,
vasthavam dhaan.