The rating room

Gail Weiss, 30, of Los Angeles (no relation to Dr. Kevin Weiss) recently did a Google search to check out a new doctor who had joined the pediatric practice where she takes her three children. The search led her to a doctors' ratings website that, she says, was so interesting and easy to use that she ended up trolling for information on all of the family's doctors. She then posted an evaluation of her own doctor, whom she "loves," and Weiss' husband posted a positive rating of the family's former pediatrician.

"I wanted to know the doctor's credentials and the school she went to," Weiss says. "But the comments from other patients also made an impression on me. They said things like, 'the office staff isn't that courteous but the doctor is good.' I think these sites empower consumers."

Reputation on the line

That's the goal, say the site operators: help the consumer find a suitable doctor. Many doctors scoff at that description, however, saying the sites mislead potential patients and are unfair.

Dr. Richard Fischel, a thoracic surgeon in Orange, says his life was turned upside-down after a patient began posting vicious remarks online regarding a surgery Fischel performed. Fischel says the surgery was an elective procedure, that he and the patient discussed the pros and cons, and that the patient signed a consent form acknowledging that discussion.

The operation went well, Fischel says. But after the surgery, the patient complained bitterly about a previously discussed side effect that can sometimes occur as a result of the surgery, Fischel says.

"He decided his life was ruined and destroyed," says Fischel, who graduated from UCLA medical school in 1984 and is now director of thoracic oncology at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. Online, Fischel says, the patient posted "slanderous rants and raves."

Fischel, who says he can't reveal further details of the case because of a legal agreement he has since reached with the patient, soon discovered the pervasive power of the Internet. He says that his business was severely affected and that he suffered significant monetary and emotional costs because of the patient's postings. Fischel hired a lawyer to try to make the patient stop writing about him and became so depressed he considered leaving medicine.

"Doctors, in general, are sitting ducks," Fischel says. "It's impossible to fight back. The courts make it so you have almost no options."