A related question to how should patients select a physician is how should a physician select a consulting physician? As a physician I find it difficult to judge the expertise of the consultant. When I send a patient to another physician it is because I realize I need help because I lack the required expertise. I may feel the consultant is doing too much or too little, but am I in a good position to make a valid judgment?

Certainly I can assess how well the consultant treats me as a referring physician. Do they send me a report in a timely fashion? Do they treat me with respect? I can also ask my patient whether they liked the consultant. I used to think these were surrogates for quality but then within a few years two consultants I used got into trouble with our state medical board over issues of competence. I was surprised by this and very distressed by this because I had thought I was making good selections. If I am unable to judge the competence of a fellow physician it seems not very likely that a patient can effectively judge the competence of their personal physician.