Portland’s Top Doctors 2012

Comments

By Andrea C. on Feb 20, 2012 at 10:21AM

This is not a fair list. I work with amazing TOP Vascular doctors. And what I noticed througout the list is a lot of OHSU docs, very few Legacy, Providence, Kaiser docs made the list. We have patients who come from across Oregon/Washington to see our Vascular docs, because they are the best of the best, and one of them made the list a few years ago and not one of the 4 docs made the list this year.

By Todd on Feb 20, 2012 at 11:58PM

You should be ashamed to publish such findings, seemingly all of the great physicians reside up on the hill. I have worked at 10 of the local hospitals and I can assure you that your findings are less than accurate, much less contain any remembance to the truth. Wow, your paper has lost all credibility.

By Phyllis Riggs on Feb 23, 2012 at 10:04PM

This seems to be a biased selection of doctors. As fine as they are — There are many who were not on the list — Drs. Madey & Long, Dr. Hill, Dr. Bradley and many others who work out of hospitals not listed as OHSU. It makes one sad to see such biased reporting.

By Mark on Feb 20, 2012 at 12:24PM

Easy to skew results when it is based on which institution campained the most for the voting for their MD’s.
However, you didn’t factor in the most important factors: Patient satisfaction, complications, length of stay, infections, and etc., into the results.

By tonyb on Feb 18, 2012 at 1:26AM

1: Alternative care apparently doesn’t produce “doctors”.

2: Seems weird that Emanuel Hospital (Level 1 trauma center) doesn’t have more docs on this list since all Fire and Police ask to be sent there if injured. Something is fishy here.

By Sue D on Feb 23, 2012 at 1:03PM

I know many wonderful doctors at Good Samaritan that are not on this list. You should let the nurses vote for the Top Portland Doctors at all sites and see what the REAL results are..we know who is the best!!

By Nurse Betty on Apr 04, 2012 at 10:25AM

Compared to past lists one would think OHSU paid people to evaluate the services listed. What happened to investigative reporting? This list is a sham.

By Kathy H. on Apr 04, 2012 at 11:57AM

Pretty scary comments from all of you. I’m trying to find an excellent neurologist and thought the Portland Monthly was a good source. I see I was mistaken, after reading all the comments about their list. So once again, get out the dartboard, place blindfold over eyes and throw!!

By grimmer on Mar 19, 2012 at 11:12PM

quit with the bellyaching and sour grapes people. a list is just a list. do you think that people should take it as gospel? do your own research

By Wm. McBride on Jan 23, 2012 at 9:37AM

How can you not be ashamed to publish such execrable marketing drivel. Two years ago, one of your “top” Pulmonary docs earned that designation by voting for himself using all his partner’s email identities ( without their knowledgs or consent ). The results reflect OHSU’s ability and willingness to stuff the ballot box and bear no relationship to the expertise of it’s staff.

By ki on Jan 06, 2012 at 3:08PM

There is something very wrong with this list. If you actually use the AVVO search engine to run some of the names it is completely inaccurate! Doctor “A” has been practicing 20+ years and is well published but only gets 3/5 stars for “experience” and 1/5 stars for “industry recognition” (and is not on the Best Doctor list). Doctor “B” has been out of residency for all of 6 months, has no major publications but gets 4/5 stars for “experience” and 2.5/5 stars for “industry recognition” (and is named on the Best Doctor list!)
Bottom line: check some other sources before going with a doc on this list. The process for how they got these names is majorly flawed.

By Cordoba on Feb 05, 2012 at 12:34AM

Dr. McBride,
I agree with you that this process is far from ideal, but please do not use anecdotal evidence to denigrate an entire institution for the unethical practices of one person. Many hospital systems attempt to stuff the ballot box for lists like these, and this occurs all over the country. I have received e-mail reminders from Providence, Legacy, and OHSU reminding me to cast my votes for colleagues at these respective institutions.

By d d on Feb 20, 2012 at 6:37PM

Pretty damn easy to get on this list if you work at OHSU, or the Rebound clinic.

who’s paying off who?

portland monthly is a joke.

By Emanuel Nurse on Feb 21, 2012 at 1:36PM

Nobody should be surprised that OHSU docs have been taking top honors since this whole list thing began. OHSU seems to have more advertisements than any of the other hospitals and that’s what seems to count for quality. How many times has Doernbecher received recognition while Emanuel has not? It is really sad. From this list, one would think the only place to get decent care is at OHSU… I know this is not the case because I work at Emanuel. I’m thankful Dr. Chen was honored top neurosurgeon. He operates at Emanuel… So do Dr.’s Silen, Zallen, and Jamison. Who are the real top docs that are not listed? Cardio thoracic: Jon Hill, Orthopedic spine: Adam Barmada & J Rafe Sales, Pediatric Surgery: Sanjay Krishnaswami, Orthopedics: Rich Gellman, Doug Beaman, Corey Vande Zandschulp, Britt Frome, & David Noall

By Cordoba on Feb 26, 2012 at 9:11AM

Given the number of nurses who commented from February 18th to 23rd, there seems to be a campaign to promote physicians who did not make it to the list. Why is everyone up in arms? It is neither a perfect list nor a perfect process. It wasn’t 5 years ago, and it isn’t today. Having worked at Legacy Good Samaritan, Legacy Emanuel, Providence St. Vincent, Providence Portland, and OHSU, all of these hospitals try to game the system. The administration for these hospitals always sends out e-mail reminders to their physicians to vote for their favorite docs (usually at their own facilities). In years past, when it was just a popularity contest, this created a bias where the head of each department or division was the most likely to get chosen.

From my reading of the process, this year they also took into account research activities and awards. This is likely why OHSU was over represented.

The use of outcomes (infection, length of stay, other complications) to measure an individual physician rating is not going to be accurate either. A hospital that does “bread and butter” low-risk procedures will likely have lower infection and length of stay. A hospital that sees more surgeon to surgeon referral is usually getting patients with higher acuity problems, where the “easy fix” was already tried and failed.

By Susan D. on Feb 21, 2012 at 9:27AM

Perhaps this should be titled “Top Doctors at OHSU”. This list is not very representative of the city. While I’m sure many of the OHSU doctors are top notch, I can’t help but wonder about your survey methods. All the top pediatric docs are at Doernbechers – really? As a medical professional, I wonder about publishing something so misleading to the general public.

By Susan on Feb 21, 2012 at 6:39AM

Physicians voting on other Physicians is just a popularity contest. Let Registered Nurses vote— then you will know who has the best outcomes, the best bedside manner, etc.

Besides, this isn’t even entirely accurate. Robert Steelman is a Pediatric Intensivist- not a regular Pediatrician. What else is incorrect or inflated to the public?

By craig p on Feb 22, 2012 at 8:16AM

I guess the “non-OHSU” group just get “lucky” with pt outcomes since they are at the bottom of this list.

By Alissa on Jan 03, 2012 at 11:03AM

Great list, but unfortunately all the doctors I’ve attempted to contact are not taking new patients.

By Jane Doe on Feb 20, 2012 at 9:58PM

This list is a joke. It is easy to tell who had a say in this list and it wasn’t patients.