As a blog for Philadelphia Magazine pointed out last week…
“[Kermit] Gosnell is the West Philadelphia abortion doctor who will be tried in March on a seemingly endless number of charges including murder, abuse of corpse, infanticide, abortion on an unborn child of 24 weeks or more, and drug delivery resulting in death. Among the most grisly accusations: Gosnell took a pair of scissors to the spinal cords of several aborted infants who lived through the procedures.”
As hard as it seems to believe, it’s actually worse than that, as we’ve explained in the many stories we’ve carried along with dozens of excerpts we’ve run from the report of an indignant grand jury that investigated what Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams came to call Gosnell’s “House of Horrors.”
While it is true while he is charged with severing the spinal cords of “several” babies aborted alive [seven, to be exact], were his record keeping not so shoddy he would likely have been charged with many more, according to the grand jury. In addition Gosnell will also stand trial on a count of third-degree murder in the case of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, who died from a drug overdose reportedly prescribed by Gosnell.
I try to keep track as we get closer and closer to the March trial, but I had missed a January 31 post on the blog of Philadelphia Magazine under the headline, “’Barbaric’ Abortion Doctor Kermit Gosnell #1 Ob-Gyn on HealthGrades.com [UPDATED].” This really DOES qualify to be included in the “you can’t make this stuff up” category.
According to Philadelphia Magazine, the 14-year-old HealthGrades.com doctor-rating website was describe by Time magazine in 2011 as “an invaluable way to winnow your search to the docs who might be right for you and to weed out ones who could spell trouble.” To which the blog writer drily added, “So much for that.”
Turns out that if you go to the “Find an Obstetrician-Gynecologist” with Philadelphia as your destination, guess whose name pops up first under best match at Healthgrade.com (out of 746 obstetricians and gynecologists near Philadelphia)? “None other than Kermit Gosnell.”
HealthGrades.com replied the next day. Their explanation was convoluted but the gist of it was one-part we apologize for nothing and one-part we’re taking a second look.
With respect to defending its system, HealthGrade’s.com response can be broken out this way:
(1) “Dr. Gosnell’s profile appeared at the top of our provider listings for searches on Obstetrics & Gynecology in Philadelphia because his profile had a large number of page views due to recent news events [!]. Our algorithms for this type of search default to search volume, weighted with proximity, among other factors” ; (2) besides, “In the case of Dr. Gosnell, his profile clearly stated that he had received a number of sanctions including the revocation of his license to practice medicine in the State of New York, the suspension of his license in the State of Delaware and the Surrender of his license in the State of Pennsylvania”; and, in any event, (3) “With regard to Dr. Gosnell’s patient satisfaction rating, the score reflected surveys that were completed prior to the date of his license suspension and correctly indicated that his patient satisfaction rating at 65% was below the national average.”
Having said all that, the company then adds, “We are looking carefully at our rules to determine ways in which we can improve our ranking logic to curb this confusion of notoriety vs. popularity of providers in the future.”
You think?
[Be SURE to read my review of an amazing documentary about Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society. It’s found at www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/01/roe-at-40-the-imperative-to-watch-the-documentary-on-kermit-gosnells-grisly-abortion-clinic/#more-21393. Please be sure to share it using your social networks.]
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He writes Today’s News and Views — an online column on pro-life issues.
