Angie's List. Yelp. But there tho Erica has a point it is not the same as yours. Being an informed consumer of medical services is not the same as comparison shopping.
And I still say people don't comparison shop for medical services. They pick a doctor based on location, specialties and insurance. Those are often the only pieces of information that ARE available except for perhaps gender and a recommendation. And the two doctors I saw because someone recommended them were not my cup of tea, personally. It's a pretty personal relationship. So. They pick a doctor then they see the doctor and if they do not like him/her they switch. Generally. If they are injured they will seek out the nearest ER that in their minds meets a minimum standard. I have seen people who were angry with the helicopter crews that took them to UNMH because it did not meet that standard in their mind (even if it's a very competent hospital in its areas of specialty, one of which is saving the lives of people who needed to arrive by helicopter....) I will say tho that they know bugger all about blood clots.... and aren't trying to learn. At all. Anyone in New Mexico who has them should avoid the place like the plague as the standard of care in that particular niche is near-lethal. Even if they saved my life once -- if I hadn't told them what they were looking at I too might well have been a statistic as well. Harsh but true. So... my current criterion for medical care is anyplace but, unless I need trauma surgeons. I am sure that everyone else's medical choices are equally individual and just as hard to pigeonhole, unless you are really trying to do so. On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 6:38 PM, Gruss Gott <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Judah wrote: > > pilots, on the other hand, don't sit down and help you decide if you > > need to go to NYC or not. They don't decide whether it would be better > > to have a layover in Minneapolis or Houston. Etc, etc. > > Travel agents do. And presumably the traveler has done research > before hand to known whom they'd like to work with on that > consultation or possibly avoid consultation all together by doing > upfront research and selecting, say, JetBlue due to it's all > first-class seats vs USAir that has shitty seats. A330s, btw, have a > 2-5-2 configuration for economy while DC-10s have a 3-8-3. > > So, for me, air travel is far from a commodity. For you it is. > > But these definitions are subjective and drift from the points are these: > > (1.) Even if we say medical services are not commodities like, say, > oranges, my bet is that most consumers treat their medical services > worse than commodities when it comes to selection. That is, they > perform very little up front analysis, get very few second opinions, > and do very little research. > > (2.) Even if consumers wanted to compare doctors and costs, they can't > as no standard measures exist and no services (that I know of) exist > to review and rank doctors and hospitals based on any defined > criteria. > > Most people on this list know great sites to compare flights or even > destinations using your example; but they know of no web sites to > compare doctors or hospitals. > > Businesses like Carol.com have mostly failed thus far. > > Redbrickhealth.com is just getting going. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:299753 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
