To the Editor:
Re “Rating Doctors Like Restaurants” (editorial, Feb. 18):
In response to doctors’ concerns about patients’ ability to judge the quality of a doctor, your editorial answers with an analogy: professors complained when students started rating them, but such reviews are now regularly used in teaching evaluations.
This is poor justification for publishing patient satisfaction scores, since there is little or no proof that student ratings have improved education or individual faculty performance. I have seen no studies that put the validity of these evaluations to rigorous review.
And remember, a misguided Zagat’s review would lead, at worst, to one disappointing meal.
James Leve
Flagstaff, Ariz., Feb. 18, 2009
The writer is an associate professor of music at Northern Arizona University.
