Patient to Patient doctor office ratings

Implications: The announcement by Wellpoint that it will offer online evaluations of doctors and their offices is very interesting. Using a tool developed by Zagat's, patients in targest markets will be able to rate their physician "experience" on several unspecified factors, presumably dealing with things like doctor/office communication, amenities, timeliness and other customer-care focused categories.

Analysis: I think this is a great idea that will benefit both doctors and patients. Too often, physicians globally are underconcerned with things that any other service provider pays particular attention to: appearance of the office, wait times, ease of making an appointment, office amenities (ie coffee or wireless internet), clarity of instructions, and in general, the overall office experience. While I stress these issues to my office staff, I am sure that we can improve and will improve. Making these evaluation tools available to patients will enable us to identify and fix our shortcomings, without threatening our licensure, quality ratings, or physician-physician reputation.
This should be viewed as a positive (although I know many will complain) and I look forward to it coming to my area.