Once I saw the announcement, and being I live in the OC, time to go check it out and so far I like what I see. The format is easy enough to use and the profiles of the 
doctors are included. I originally posted about the service back in 2010 when they made their debut in New York. The technology is built around SQL Server and Dot net. The service is free for patients and doctors pay a small monthly fee to be listed.
ZocDoc Secures More Funding – Find Doctors and Make Appointments Online
Being the hands on person I try to be as much as I can I did a search and did some poking around. The one item that is great is that the doctors create their own profiles! Nice! Read down further and I’ll tell you why this is important.
Here’s what my zip code looks like and I just did a simple search for a primary care MD in my area. There are doctors in Los Angeles and in Orange County.
One item to note is that the doctors are listed here because they want to be and in turn they are seeing value with getting appointments made to see patients. Participatory Appointments and doctor enrollment with value, I like this and for those of you who are not in one of their areas you’ll still have to put up with one of those “other” services with flaws that run doctors up the flag pole and have MDs associated with hospitals where they have never set foot, dead doctors and so on. You can read a summary of some of my past articles on how “the other guys” work at the link below and again, when ZocDoc comes around take a look at again we have participatory membership and consumer information here, along with value. ZocDoc is not trying to rate the doctors either, just get you connected so you can go see one!
Yahoo Search-Dead Doctor Listings and Flaws Alive and Well There too! Is Everybody on the Web Drinking the Flawed Data?
Those other services want the doctors to work on log on and correct what they create as a profile with no value for them and somewhat blame the doctors and health boards for their errors, this is much better as dead doctors don’t create profiles and don’t want appointments.
Also of interest, I posted yesterday about some hospitals in southern California allowing appointments for up to 2 hours in advance at the ER room and this could be a helpful resource too. BD
Southern California Hospital Offers Appointments for the Emergency Room for $15.00 for Non Emergency Visits-InQuickER
Find Dentists or Doctors and Book Online Instantly - ZocDoc
Yes, ZocDoc is like OpenTable. But it is not like Zagat's. In other words, it is not primarily about quality, but rather about marketing and convenience. I would advise people only to use ZocDoc if they are already assured of the quality of the doctor. Making comparisons only among the doctors listed on ZocDoc is like choosing among the entire array of samples available at Wal-Mart, without ever looking in a higher-quality store.
ReplyDeleteYou make it sound as though it is easy for doctors to sign up for ZocDoc. It is not. I don't know what your definition of a "small monthly fee" is, but the price for me to get listed on ZocDoc (I am a doctor) was $250/month. I was told that "I would make the money back pretty soon" because of increased referrals. That's ridiculous. Given the decline in insurance reimbursement and increase in our costs, $250/month is a lot of money for physicians these days.
Thus, it appears that ZocDoc's primary doctor-targets are those without busy practices, who are desperately looking for more referrals, who are anxious about losing market share to other doctors, and who are willing to pay for ZocDoc's doing the marketing for them.
In contrast, doctors with busy practices don't need to pay ZocDoc's high fees, because they are already busy with patients who were referred by word of mouth from other happy patients, referring physicians, etc.
If you want to research a quality doctor, try Castle Connolly instead. It is an entirely quality-driven rating system, and doctors cannot pay their way into the listings. In my research, none of the highest-quality doctors in my area were listed on ZocDocs. The only ones listed were those with rather poor reputations as clinicians.
Thanks for the comments, always appreciated and I did not realize that it was 250 a month to be listed. I looked around my area, which is new to the program and found doctors I knew that I deem are fine but the fee is a big consideration. The instant appointment feature is great though as I wrote one of those features on a web site I did for a doctor years ago.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are happy with a site that works for you too as I have looked at many of the MD rating sites and have posted about their flawed data with dead doctors and son on too. It's a maize out there for sure and like anyone else I want credible information.
I just had an eMail conversation with a ZocDoc.com representative who informed me they don't let a review of a doctor on their site, unless the appointment was booked on their site, with that doctor, first.
ReplyDeleteI informed them, I can offer proof I saw the doctor (dentist, in my case) and was told to look at their review policy ... http://blog.zocdoc.com/the-zocdoc-doctor-rating-policy/ ... they "screen" the review, so any negative review on their site is generally omitted, text wise, even IF the "star rating" is kept showing. ... This doesn't give a way for the general public to get an unbiased appraisal of the doctor
Check out InQuicker.com which also offers an online appointment system for doctors at a small fraction of the ZocDoc price.
ReplyDelete