Recently, a magazine titled
San Antonio Magazine, a name
very similar to San Antonio
Medicine, the official BCMS
publication, published ratings
of San Antonio-area physicians
in various specialties. I, and
some of my colleagues, were
piqued that emergency physicians
were totally ignored in
this rating.
But what really made me
want to speak out — or shout
out, as the case were — is this
issue: Where do these ratings
come from in the first place?
What any one publication or
organization (even the county
authority, BCMS) can interview
and rate all 6,000 practicing
physicians here?
Who has the right to judge
that one physician is better
than another? While physicians
practice an exact science,
we also deal with many
abstracts. One patient may
meld instantly with a particular
physician, while another might be
uncomfortable and seek out a second
physician. That in no way indicates that
the first physician lacks excellent credentials
or is not qualified to treat the patient.
It is a matter of chemistry, but one
between two people, not two elements
from the Periodic Table. And there is
no rating that can measure that sort
of connection.
I have heard from BCMS CEO Steve
Fitzer that the medical society has been
approached and asked to actually perform
one of these physician ratings for yet
another San Antonio publication. The
medical society refused. I respect the society
even more after hearing this.
At best, these uninformed ratings by
general circulation magazines are popularity
contests, and at worst, they are efforts
by the magazine to sell more advertising
by appealing to the vanity of physicians
and to entice ads from vendors.
Even if these unqualified publications
used physicians to rate other physicians, as
I said before, who among us knows every
single practicing physician in San Antonio
and Bexar County? These studies are
invalid, uninformed, and serve to misinform
the public about who we, as physicians,
really are and what we really do.
So, on second thought, I’m quite glad
that emergency physicians were ignored in
this most recent “survey” by San Antonio
Magazine. Perhaps you’ll see an article
from one of us — or even an entire theme— in an upcoming issue of our publication,
San Antonio Medicine.
DONALD J. GORDON, MD, PhD
Letters to the Editor represent the opinions of
the letter authors and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions or policies of the Bexar County
Medical Society.
We welcome letters from
our readers. Please email
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San Antonio Medicine,
6243 IH-10 West, Suite 600,
San Antonio, TX 78201.
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Medical Society.”
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