Her story is famous. She was the Columbus homemaker with the Harvard MBA who went door knocking to recruit members for her word-of-mouth referral list of best and worst home improvement contractors. 

Today Angie Hicks’ list is known all over the country as Angie’s List. It now includes ratings of accountants, hair dressers and many other businesses. (Full disclosure: I’m a member. I’ve used it to find roofers, dogwalkers and floor refinshers.) She told me on the phone that she remembers that door knocking experience “as more of a character building experience than a sales experience.”

Now she’s adding a whole new category  — doctors, hospitals, dentists, pharmacists and other health care providers.  Somehow I’m not sure that I want to choose the people who might hold my daughter’s life in their hands the same way I choose my dogwalker. But Hicks is resolute in her faith that consumers are the best choice to help other consumers find their way through the health care jungle. 

“Consumers are very capable of evaluating their medical care and giving valuable information,” she said. 

Still, would you choose a cardiologist or pediatric orthopedic surgeon from the list? Would you pan a doctor or clinic on the basis of one bad experience?