Now in their 19th year, Portland Monthly’s annual peer surveys for medical providers are open. One survey, which closes June 30, is open to MDs, osteopaths, podiatrists, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants to name the doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants they would turn to if they or a member of their family needed care. Another survey, which will remain open into July, puts the same question to a variety of other providers, from naturopaths and acupuncturists to psychologists and clinical social workers. Learn more about both surveys and find the links to them here.  

Two surveys

In the doctor/nurse/PA survey, managed by Portland Monthly partner DataJoe, providers can nominate up to three names in any or all of 79 specialties. Survey takers should read the instructions on the welcome page and in the survey itself to get tips on finding the name you’re looking for in the drop-down menu that will appear on the nomination form. If you don’t see the name you’re looking for, make sure you have the correct first and last name as they appear in Oregon Medical Board or Oregon State Board of Nursing records, or try a middle initial or middle name if the first and last names are a common combination. (In some cases, a provider has contacted us in the past with a request for how their name appears, which may differ from OSBN or OMB records.) 

In the survey for naturopaths, complementary medicine providers, and mental health professionals, providers in those fields enter their practice information (if the survey taker ends up being nominated, too, we may use this information for fact-checking) and can nominate up to four names in each category. This survey has no drop-down menus, and participants simply enter a first and last name. To make sure your votes count, please confirm names before you type them. The mental health professionals is meant to be for those who are not MDs, NPs, or PAs, though anyone can be nominated. 

This process is far from perfect. People who work for large organizations with many colleagues who are familiar with their records certainly have a leg up, especially if those organizations have communications staffs reminding people to vote. Survey takers are asked to think beyond their immediate surroundings when they are pondering nominees. We also ask that people credentialed in more than one licensing category take a survey only once. If you are both a certified nurse midwife and a naturopathic doctor, for example, you may take each survey one time. If you are both a licensed acupuncturist and a licensed massage therapist, however, please take the complementary medicine provider survey only one time. You may nominate the same number of people as any other survey taker, not twice as many. 

The final list of providers and their workplaces will run in our Winter 2022–23 issue, which should hit newsstands around Thanksgiving. To search our latest list of top medical providers, click here. 

What about dentists?

Portland Monthly also publishes an annual list of top dental care providers in the area. We do not conduct a survey of our own for that; rather, we receive a list from USA Top Dentists, which conducts its own surveys for metro areas across the country.