(September 7, 2010 - Insidermedicine)

Characteristics of patients, such as their age or mother tongue, can substantially influence how they evaluate the performance of their primary care physicians, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Here are some tips to help you pick the physician who is right for you:

•    Ask friends and relatives for suggestions

•    Check out convenience-related information, such as office location, hours of operation, how payment is handled, and how off-hours emergencies are dealt with

•    If you have a specific medical condition, ask the local chapter of an association that deals with that condition for a recommendation

Researchers from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed the performance scores given by over 125,000 patients to primary care physicians they visited between 2003 and 2005. The investigators looked at the relationship between the characteristics of the patients themselves and the scores they gave their physicians.

Patients were more likely to give their physicians better scores if they were older, had a greater number of health problems, or visited their physician more frequently. The primary care physicians received better scores of they had fewer patients who were minorities, non-English speakers, Medicaid recipients, or uninsured. After taking into account the site of the physicians’ practice and the frequency with which patients visited them, adjusting patient characteristics could result in changes to physicians’ classifications as a bottom, middle, or top performer in as  many as 36% of cases.

Today’s research suggests that decisions that are made based on patients’ rating of physicians’ performance, such as whether or not reward or promote a certain physician, should take into consideration the characteristics of the patients doing the evaluating.