Methods for evaluation of medical care other than credentialing. Cost, experience, and results.

Unfortunately, the majority of studies proposed to evaluate a physician's capabilities, such as effectiveness programs, outcome research, and hospital evaluation, do not focus directly on the individual practitioner. The certifying process, although imperfect, still offers the best method of evaluation. The other evaluation methods will need additional refinement to be able to individually analyze a specific physician's performance and determine whether he or she is truly providing the highest quality care. Physicians are being asked to document the effectiveness of their clinical decision making. On the surface this seems so simple, and in some areas where the outcome is either life or death or a specific yes or no type of answer, many have the capability to come forth with some realistic documentation. However, today's society is focused on health and the perfect outcome, and many nonlife-threatening therapies are evaluated by a patient's unrealistic expectation. Thus, the same result may be interpreted differently in one geographic area or by patients with different expectations. The biggest mistake would be to believe that outcome studies can be used to reduce cost. There may be some initial reduction or delays in treatment that suggest an immediate reduction of cost, the so-called sentinel effect, but no information or evidence indicates that these effects can be expanded without actually reducing needed health care services. In fact, the delays or obstruction to entering the health-care system experienced by many individuals often lead to more costly and less effective care with suboptimal results.