doctor shopping

[ dok-ter shop-ing ]

noun

1. the act or practice of illegally obtaining prescriptions for a controlled substance from more than one healthcare practitioner at a time, concealing from each the fact that one is doing so:

   Doctor shopping and prescription forgery are common methods of prescription drug abuse.

2. the process of visiting one physician after another in search of a satisfactory one or a particular outcome:

   I did some doctor shopping before deciding on the plastic surgeon recommended by a friend.

   She had to do a lot of doctor shopping, as it was very hard to get a diagnosis for her rare symptoms.

Word History and Origins

Origin of doctor shopping¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Others claimed that customers were “doctor shopping” and expressed concern that some of them had “overdosed and died.”

From The Daily Beast