1. accent
SECTION
THE SUNDAY REPUBLICAN NOVEMBER 18, 2007
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Holidays and divorce Health Page
How to keep this time of year Virtual exercise: Helping get
as enjoyable as possible. 2G kids, adults off the couch. 3G
SUNDAY
REFLECTIONS
MAJOR HEALTH INSURER PAIRS
WITH SURVEY GUIDE TO OFFER ITS
TRACEY
O’SHAUGHNESSY
MEMBERS A DOCTOR RATING TOOL,
BUT CAN DOCTORS BE RATED?
Taking,
making,
time for
thanks
E
very night at dinner,
I give thanks.
Sometimes I’m too
hungry and some-
times I’m too rushed and many
times I deliver my prayer per-
functorily or hastily.
I wish that weren’t true, but
there it is.
I suppose many of us are liv-
ing such accelerated and chaot-
ic lives that we don’t stop as
often as we should. Silent grati-
tude, as George Bernard Shaw
once said, is no good to anyone,
but is the kind of gratitude with
which most of us are familiar.
I suppose the reason I love
Thanksgiving so much is be-
cause it forces us to do what we
are disinclined by our lifestyles
to do. The older I get, the less
concerned I get about the food,
or the table setting or even
(shattering for a meticulous fa-
natic like me) the condition of
the house. What concerns me
most is not just my duty to give
thanks, but my growing desire
to do so. Perhaps it is that the
longer I live, the more acute the
sheer precariousness of life be-
comes. Grace seems more elu-
sive and essential than ever.
ZagatMD
(JOEL SHIRK) HAS
A WIFE AND THREE
KIDS AND GOT
HIS BIGGEST BOLT
OF JOY WHEN
HE BOUGHT A
HOMELESS MAN
NAMED PAUL A PAIR
OF WORK BOOTS.
STOCKEXPERT.COM
Zagat is teaming with WellPoint, which will begin offering select members use of its online doctor rating tool. Medical professionals,
So I want to tell you about a
however, question just how useful such a tool may be when it comes to finding a doctor that’s right for the individual.
few people for whom I am
grateful this year. I don’t know
ment. It will also include comments from patients.
any of them. But I have been BY CARRIE MACMILLAN
blessed and restored by them Two local doctors are wary of the system.
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
because of what they did, or
“I am not against the idea of rating doctors, but I would
what they refused to do. hoosing a surgeon and choosing a sushi restau-
C
■ There’s a man in Cheshire take it with a grain of salt,” said Dr. David Knight, a Water-
rant are two entirely different matters.
named Joel Shirk. Joel Shirk is
bury surgeon. “What you are looking for in a doctor is not
But Zagat Survey, creators of the eponymous
a grateful man. He lives in a
necessarily what the person sitting next to you is looking
pretty town. He makes a good burgundy book that ranks eateries worldwide on
living. He deserved a birthday for. It’s a very personal thing. It’s not like buying a com-
decor, service, food and cost, is expanding its reach again.
party. So he gave himself one.
modity.”
And invited people who lacked Already, the New York-based company rates hotels,
what he had: a home, a good liv- But American consumers are an empirical bunch, pointed
nightlife and golf courses.
ing, a place to sleep at night.
out Dr. Jeffrey Sedlack, assistant chief of surgery at Water-
On Nov. 4, Joel Shirk invited Now, Zagat is teaming with WellPoint, the nation’s largest
bury Hospital. They expect books and Web sites to tell them
52 people to a birthday party at
health insurer with subsidiaries including Blue Cross Blue
which he served them. He went where to get the best hamburger or the best apple martini or
Shield. Starting in January, WellPoint will begin offering
out among the poor in Meriden,
the best deal on a new laptop.
brought them all together un- the online rating tool to select members of its health-care
der one roof and gave them a “We have a very low tolerance for risk,” Sedlack said. “We
plans. The service will be exclusively available to Well-
three-course meal on fine chi- will look for reassuring data, whether it is valid or accurate
na, served by waiters in formal Point’s 35 million members.
or not.”
attire to the tunes of a jazz en-
The 30-point scale has WellPoint members assess doctors
semble.
See PATIENTS, Page 2G
“I wanted to do something based on trust, communication, availability and environ-
for the poor,” said Shirk, who
turned 50 that day. “I asked
them, ‘When was the last time
you had a party for yourself?’ READERS: We want to know how you choose your doctors.
and one guy just put his head
Is it by word-of-mouth, or some other means? And doctors, tell
down and tears came out of his
eyes.” us what makes a good patient. Contact Carrie MacMillan at
cmacmillan@rep-am.com or call (203) 574-3636, ext. 1486.
See SELFLESS, Page 2G