Know your doctor

I should really have entitled this entry "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" part 2, but I don't want to wear that title out. Basically, I had a patient whose family friend referred him to a neurologist for help for a problem he had been having. To make a long story short, the neurologist diagnosed the patient with a serious medical disorder he never had, put him on several strong medications for it, which then made the patient worse due to side effects. Like many people, even though the patient sensed something was wrong, he did not challenge the doctor at first because "The doctor must be right." But eventually the symptoms from the medications became so severe that the patient stopped seeing the doctor. Then the patient hired a lawyer and did some research and found out the doctor had his license suspended for various reasons, one of which included attacking a patient. I typed in the name of the doctor on Google just to check it out for myself and lo and behold, the information the patient told me was true.

There are many medical websites out there which purport to do background checks on physicians and I have no idea if they are good or not, but all charge a fee and it is probably unrealistic to expect you are going to pay for a search before you visit each new doctor. But why not at least do a quick Google search before you go to that appointment? You never know...