LOS ANGELES – Following the lead of several states, California will soon issue report cards for doctors — allowing patients to go online and check their G.P.’s GPA.
Advocates for the initiative say that patients facing life-saving surgery or treatment should know how their physicians measure up.
And putting MDs under the microscope would also motivate less successful doctors to do better, which, in turn, could improve overall medical care.
“Physicians need to be willing to compare themselves to their peers,” said Dr. Bart Asner, the CEO of doctors' group Monarch Healthcare (search) who is in favor of the status reports.
“Doctors are competitive. They want to do the best job they can with their patients, and really what they need is … to know how they can improve,” Asner said.
But what if some doctors decide to cheat, padding their grades by refusing to treat the elderly or the very sick because their grades will drop if their patients die? Some say it’s already happening in New York.
“The difficult cases are being shipped out of state because doctors participating in this program know that if they do those cases, they’ll get lower grades on their report card,” said Dr. Robert Weinmann, president of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (search). “People who really don’t understand medicine or science will think they’re the worst doctors.”
Click in the video box above to watch a report by FOX News’ Trace Gallagher.
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