A kind of ' My School" site for the medical/dental profession?
If it's good enough for teachers, why not for other professionals?

Sounds like a good idea, those who are providing a good service should have nothing to fear, the rest will have to lift their game.

David

As it is run by a private insurer, this site is clearly aimed at reducing the credibility of complementary practitioners, and thereby reduce its claim load to them.

I do believe the public should have a site for the participatory evaluation of medical and complementary service providers, but it should be hosted by an unaffiliated non-profit organisation that is transparent and accountable.

"Whitecoat" works on the presumption that all health consumer clients are of similar judgmental perception to one another. In the real world two consumers may have completely opposing views on the abilities of the same provider which may be based on professionally irrelevant details. It also presumes that all clients posting on the site are of sound mind, and anyone working in the health industry can assure you that clients present with a wide array of personalities and rationalities. The site has already been told it can not progress based on legal infringements of the privacy act in its current state. I would have concerns regarding the defamatory aspects of it as well. Since when did everything have to go up in "cyber land" anyway, what ever happened to good old word or mouth referral from another health professional or a trusted friend?

This will be just as time wasting as the My Schools website for the very reasons Allied practitioner puts forth.

Just because somebody makes a judgement then makes it public does not mean it is correct - it is subjective. These sites can do more harm than good and provide no real valid information. There might be some merit in revealing a consistently bad performer but these will be the exception rather than the rule most of it will fall into grey areas. Who monitors the site? What is to stop some wily practitioner from getting friends and family to put in a good word. We may as well use the same system as 'Australian Idol' and get friends and rellies to text their vote, it will be just as meaningless and will end up with winners like Guy Sebastian rather than real talent.

Medical and associated services are often selected via word of mouth of those we trust, sometimes out of the yellow pages, or who is the closest. Experience will reveal if we made the right choice.

Thanks for this Jonathon; just what we've been looking for. Having been mislead by a dental practice on the price of cap ($2500!), I have revolted against their $500 per hour robbery.

Last procedure I had was in NZ; cost half as much as it would have here and even less with the exchange rate.

Met a bloke in Bali who was having a lot of dental work done there; paid for a decent holiday and still had money over with what he saved compared to having it done in Australia.

However, I believe there are ethical dentists in Australia; I just want to know where to find them. The site you refer seems to be just the ticket! Will it have lists of dentists and their charges too?

It's the charges that hurt more than the procedure!

@clickcraftsman: aimed at reducing the credibility of complementary practitioners

Why? Will this reveal to the world that everybody who visits a complementary practitioners was disappointed with the experience? If the reverse is true, ie most people who use complementary practitioners are happy with the results, wouldn't this be a good thing for them?

@pelican: This will be just as time wasting as the My Schools website for the very reasons Allied practitioner puts forth. Just because somebody makes a judgement then makes it public does not mean it is correct - it is subjective.

Have you actually visited the My Schools web site pelican? It doesn't post subjective opinions. Not a one. It is all almost all fact and figures, which I presume come from audited books provided by the school. The only bit that isn't is a bit of self promotion that comes from the school itself.

If you go looking it is actually a mine of information. A number of schools around my area have bad reputations. I was making my assessment of the school based on hearsay academic results. The hearsay was right, the academic performance of those schools was poor - it but omitted some vital facts. I looked up one on My Schools and found out over 60% of it's students didn't use English as their first language. Ditto for most of the other "poorly performing" schools. It was a real eye opener for me. My opinion of the those teachers went from state school slackers to heroes in one click. It is amazing how much light from some cold, hard, balanced figures can shine on a situation.

@pelican: Who monitors the site?

NIB. NIB making some attempt to collect real, unbiased figures, and I presume some attempt to present a balanced collection of customer comments. Word of mouth is how I found out about my current dentist. In comparison to word of mouth where I am relying on the experiences of one or two people, a web site that collects lots of opinions seems like it would be a vast improvement.

Roses 1 ,
I suppose we could send our poor overseas to Bali to get their teeth done on the cheap instead of waiting 2-3 years .
Dentists have a lot to put up with .
I know one Dental student doing work for free,[along with many others] for their last 2 years of training - she is at present calming mentally handicapped people into letting her repair their often very neglected teeth .
Australian Dentists that I've known [plenty], always try to prevent mouth and Gum Disease - they deserve our respect ....and money .

Dumb and Dumber. You don't think NIB will stack the rack on opinion from bogus identities. I've never seen an initiative from an insurance company that isn't designed to boost their market share or bottom line. Yeah, insurance companies are your new best friend.

rstuart
You are right My Schools is based on academic results not subjective opinons, I was only saying it will be just as meaningless without context in relation to other demographic information.

My way of looking at this is it would be akin to reading Online Opinion to get advice about medical practititioners. There would be opinion only no consensus. One mistake by one practitioner recorded while ignoring the 99% record may skew an opinion unfairly (and the reverse) and would be of no value to consumers.

If NIB was to manage the site on the basis of feedback from its customers what about the rest of the population who use doctors? Some medical practices, clinics and other providers have different contracts and relationships with medical funds.

It will be up to individuals to take from it what they will I guess, I reckon advice from locals in your own area remains the best recommendation. A friend advises it also helps if you have a relative in nursing, they are usually the best for advice on surgeons (ie. who is incompetent). Alas not all of us are that lucky.