Choosing a Doctor. Worse than ordering off a foreign language menu.

How do you do it.

Unfortunately my favorite doctor had a stroke. Great guy, no nonsense, no BS.

That left me without a doctor. When the high BP showed up, I flipped through the internet and picked one based on his proximity to my office and home. Never did get real comfortable with him. I went in for an appointment this morning and between the lack of communication with me, their lab, and his staff, and their inability to answer the damn phone during business hours, I fired them. The guy was just wishey washey and didn't give me the warm fuzzes that he knew what he was doing. He's done.

Next. How the hell do you pick a good one. I kind of wish there was a speed dating service for doctors. They are worse than prostitutes. It'll cost you $100 for the introduction.

the old fashioned personal referral. you can use healthgrades, but there's no shortage of invented reviews. I keep a database of primary care docs I send patients to for follow up. send me a pm if you want me to check if I've got anyone near you.

In reply to oldtin:

Unfortunately, everyone I know lives in another town. I'm trying to find someone closer than 25 miles. I'm going to call my fathers internal guy in the morning. He's a kid, but my dad seems to like him. He's listed as limited availability for new patients though. If that doesn't pan out, I'll shoot you a PM.

I just friends who they have used and are happy with. I had no Dr. for many years. I ended up with a guy I went to college with, although I didn't know him at that time. He's really good when I can tell him what's wrong.

Word of mouth is the only way to fly.

My problem is finding docs who understand that, if I'm in their office, I've already spent a couple days trying to 'walk it off', I need action to be taken.

In reply to SnowMongoose:

That was one of the good things about my last doctor. He knew if I was calling him, I was almost ready for the morgue.

Its tough to find a doctor rather than someone who simply refers you to a specialist.

All I can say is good luck. It was hard finding good doctors to help my wife, many of the ones we tried just wanted to throw another pill at her for each problem and were dismissive of her complaints. I wish we could have found the group we are with years ago as we probably could have avoided a lot of problems.

Referral here as well. Recently been having some interesting health stuff and I switched PCP's on the recommendation of a friend and have been super happy with the new guy/staff.

I disagree about the speed dating. Your initial impressions are usually correct, so you can knock some places out quickly.

While shopping for a new doctor, I have crossed a few off my shopping list because it took more than 10 minutes to get someone on the phone just to say hello and try to make an appointment. It that is the wait for call #1, I am not interested in call #2.

At two places, I walked in to my initial appointment and was met with a rude, nasty receptionist. I walked right back out. Why deal with that? How hard is it to smile and be civil?

For a primary care, I also avoided a D.O. and went for an M.D. instead. This may be personal preference, but I have found that a D.O. tends to be hands off, taking a wait and see attitude, and is reluctant to actually treat anything. Since a majority of Primary Cares are DO, they also tend to be rushed all the time and you don't get a good interaction with them. If I take the time to go to a doctor, then something is really wrong. I can suffer through a lot, and prefer duct-tape and super-glue over stitches, so if I am at your door, you had better get interested in working on my problem.

I also went with places that are independent, and allowed me to select a specific doctor. Larger, hospital affiliated places tend to be very busy with LONG wait times and zero respect for a patient's time or schedule. I prefer a place that values my health AND my business.

That said, I haven't found one yet. But I am hopeful. My next interview is on Friday...so we shall see.

I need to find one myself. Anyone here know between Gaithersburg and Frederick MD?

Put me in that boat. Usually I only go to a walk in when something is wrong after a week or two. Not sure how that would work to try and set up a vasectomy.

I always use referrals. I've heard horror stories, but luckily I have been referred to good neurologists that have been able to take care of problems and communicate quickly when needed. Now I just need to find me a general practitioner.

In reply to Apexcarver:

Mt. Airy is as close as I've got to you in MD. If you really need, I can make a few calls...

pinchvalve wrote: I disagree about the speed dating. Your initial impressions are usually correct, so you can knock some places out quickly. While shopping for a new doctor, I have crossed a few off my shopping list because it took more than 10 minutes to get someone on the phone just to say hello and try to make an appointment. It that is the wait for call #1, I am not interested in call #2. At two places, I walked in to my initial appointment and was met with a rude, nasty receptionist. I walked right back out. Why deal with that? How hard is it to smile and be civil? For a primary care, I also avoided a D.O. and went for an M.D. instead. This may be personal preference, but I have found that a D.O. tends to be hands off, taking a wait and see attitude, and is reluctant to actually treat anything. Since a majority of Primary Cares are DO, they also tend to be rushed all the time and you don't get a good interaction with them. If I take the time to go to a doctor, then something is really wrong. I can suffer through a lot, and prefer duct-tape and super-glue over stitches, so if I am at your door, you had better get interested in working on my problem. I also went with places that are independent, and allowed me to select a specific doctor. Larger, hospital affiliated places tend to be very busy with LONG wait times and zero respect for a patient's time or schedule. I prefer a place that values my health AND my business. That said, I haven't found one yet. But I am hopeful. My next interview is on Friday...so we shall see.

I'm not understanding … what is a D.O. ? as opposed to a MD

wbjones wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: I disagree about the speed dating. Your initial impressions are usually correct, so you can knock some places out quickly. While shopping for a new doctor, I have crossed a few off my shopping list because it took more than 10 minutes to get someone on the phone just to say hello and try to make an appointment. It that is the wait for call #1, I am not interested in call #2. At two places, I walked in to my initial appointment and was met with a rude, nasty receptionist. I walked right back out. Why deal with that? How hard is it to smile and be civil? For a primary care, I also avoided a D.O. and went for an M.D. instead. This may be personal preference, but I have found that a D.O. tends to be hands off, taking a wait and see attitude, and is reluctant to actually treat anything. Since a majority of Primary Cares are DO, they also tend to be rushed all the time and you don't get a good interaction with them. If I take the time to go to a doctor, then something is really wrong. I can suffer through a lot, and prefer duct-tape and super-glue over stitches, so if I am at your door, you had better get interested in working on my problem. I also went with places that are independent, and allowed me to select a specific doctor. Larger, hospital affiliated places tend to be very busy with LONG wait times and zero respect for a patient's time or schedule. I prefer a place that values my health AND my business. That said, I haven't found one yet. But I am hopeful. My next interview is on Friday...so we shall see.

I'm not understanding … what is a D.O. ? as opposed to a MD

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. In my experience, I've never noticed a difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_MD_and_DO_in_the_United_States

gotcha … could have looked that up my self … face palm …

My last few Doc's have all be DO's and qualified Naturopaths. One retired, the next was through word of mouth who passed away, my current came as a recommendation from the one who passed. Because our family is far more into natural than allopathic medicine we are part of a social network where Docs who have the same beliefs are known. Word gets around as to who is who. I'd have no issue driving 25 mins to see the 'right' doc, rather than 'a' Doc.

IMHO.......

shop for a doctor who has a "micro practice"

I have a lady MD in Portland who is great... no rush, rush appointments... she is careful, thorough, and since it is just her and I in her office*... there are NO distractions....

• • she has no secretary, or office manager, or any other support people, she runs her practice all by herself

oldeskewltoy wrote: IMHO....... shop for a doctor who has a "micro practice" I have a lady MD in Portland who is great... no rush, rush appointments... she is careful, thorough, and since it is just her and I in her office*... there are NO distractions.... * - she has no secretary, or office manager, or any other support people, she runs her practice all by herself

Is she cash only? My wife works for a doctor, and the sheer amount of paperwork involved would almost make this not possible. And if she takes medicare, it would add even more. Right now he is actively trying to sell his practice and has found no buyers due to his heavy load of medicare patients.

Anyway, to the point at hand, word of mouth is the best way I have found. And if you really want to know, find a nurse and ask her. They seem to know about every doctor in town around here. That's how I found mine and she is the best doctor I have ever had. Keep in mind that when doctors reach their limit of patients, it can be very difficult to be taken in. If you are younger, that does make it easier.

No answer, just commesuration on now being in the same boat. My beloved primary care doctor is retiring next month.

Sigh, he was great. An old doctor who worked part time and gave you all the time and care you needed and deserved.

oldtin wrote: In reply to Apexcarver: Mt. Airy is as close as I've got to you in MD. If you really need, I can make a few calls...

I am in no big rush, will keep working my local contacts.

Just been running into the problem that I know way too many people with Kaiser, so they have no real advice.

my Dr is my age … so will retire (hopefully before I stop needing him) …

my primary care is through the VA … I got lucky when I got assigned to him …

we'll have to wait and see what I get after he retires, in a few yrs …

I'm also lucky, because of all the horror stories I hear about the VA's in other areas … ours is GREAT …

In reply to racerdave600:

she is part of the Good Samaritan group... so she does accept insurance, there is no difficulty with labs, or tests.

She isn't cheap... typical visit is 60-90 minutes... yes I said an hour... to an hour and a half... and the cost is $270... but so far... our (my wife's) insurance has been covering it

We've been lucky with the group we go to. They have multiple locations and most of her specialists keep hours in more then one so we can usually get an appointment close to the house or work. All the docs have access to her info, and they do all the testing and labs in house so there is little waiting for results and since they all have input there usually isn't a need to do multiple tests. I would try to find someone young if you can as most of the older docs we've dealt with have been very reluctant to listen to her complaints and just want to hand out a script and go.