Question: How to find the best hospital or doctor for your particular needs?
From: Julie T. of Warner, OK

Answer: There are many resources available to the healthcare consumer to choose the hospital or physician you feel is most able to manage your particular healthcare need. The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) lists 95 specialties and subspecialties. If you are in need of a physician specializing in a specific area of medicine or surgery, you may want to ask your primary care physician for a recommendation, check with your local medical association, and check web based rating sites such as Healthgrades.com. Is the physician board certified? Certification is optional in many specialties and involves rigorous evaluation by physician peers. Log onto the ABMS’ website, www.abms.com, to determine if your physician choice is certified. You may want to meet the physician in his office, meet the office staff, and observe the office environment and operations but go prepared with a list of questions or check off points.

There are hundreds of resources available to research hospital ratings so I will recommend what I consider to be the top sites.  Check whether the hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) which sets the gold standard for care.  Other sites are U.S.News & World Reports annual list of the best hospitals by specialties, the Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org), HealthGrades (www.healthgrades.com), VIMO (www.vimo.com), the Commonwealth Fund (www.cmwf.org).

In my book, 7 Steps to Your Best Possible Healthcare, I address these issues in great detail.  I also provide some practical tips to look for and questions to ask.