Researching Your Health Care Provider
Getting Started Finding a Healthcare Provider:
Choosing a Primary Care Provider - This short article from MedlinePlus gives an excellent overview of the types of primary care providers, what you should consider when looking for a provider and good places to get referrals.
Choosing a Doctor or Health Care Service - Also from MedlinePlus, this guide provides a list of helpful websites and directories for finding healthcare providers and specialists.
Finding Healthcare Providers by Name:
American Medical Association "DoctorFinder" - This resource from the American Medical Association allows searching by name, location and specialty. The DoctorFinder will provide the physician's name, gender, medical school attended, residency location, American Board of Medical Specialties certification, general hours and their location. This guide will only locate healthcare providers who are members of the American Medical Association.
Reference USA Healthcare* - (Requires library card number if accessing from outside the Library) - This is a searchable directory of over 835,000 physicians and dentists in the United States. This directory allows searching by name, age, region, gender, patients per week and more.
Finding Specialists:
American Board of Medical Specialties - The American Board of Medical Specialties is an independent board responsible for certifying physicians practicing within a specialty. This website allows searching by name, location or specialty. The results will inform you if the physician is certified for a particular specialty.
Missouri Division of Professional Registration - This website provides listings for individuals who are required to be licensed in the state of Missouri to practice their profession. This includes physicians, physician assistants, surgeons and a wide variety of other professions. The "licensee search" feature allows you to look up the license of any medical professional licensed to practice in Missouri. The website allows for searching by name, county or profession. Most medical providers will be listed in the "healing arts" category. The results will give the current status of their medical license and a listing of any current disciplinary actions associated with that license.
Finding Hospital Information:
Hospital Compare - Available from the medicare.gov website, this resource gives rankings and comparisons of hospitals in a region. The results are compiled from Medicare data and patient surveys that look at key indicators used for hospital ratings. The results will give data on overall patient satisfaction, effectiveness of care, death rates and much more for specific hospitals.
US News Hospital Rankings - Gives nationwide hospital rankings by US News and World Report. This website provides general hospital rankings, rankings by specialties and patient satisfaction ratings.
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