Consumers may be able to learn from consumer reviews of hospitals

Websites aggregate customer reviews of restuarants, plumbers and hotel rooms. So when it comes to medical information and deciding between doctors, why can’t similar information be available to consumers?

RateMDs.com and ZocDoc.com can help a little but their two million doctor ratings are nothing compared to, say, TripAdvisor’s 350 million reviews. With a system that works so well for picking a hotel, it might be a valuable tool for healthcare, which is more financially taxing and carries a larger impact on lives.