Patient-doctor relationships can become extremely personal if you routinely visit the same doctor. My husband sees his doctor frequently due to a chronic illness. I see my dentist every six months and hate the thought of finding another dentist should mine decide to retire. The office staff calls me by name and I trust that the people putting their hands in my mouth are highly qualified to do so.
If you find yourself with the challenging task of establishing a relationship with a new doctor, here are some guidelines to help make the job easier.
Insurance Networks. If you have insurance, including Medicare, ensure your prospective doctor accepts it and is in your insurance carrier's network. If Medicare is your primary insurance, call the doctor's office and ask if they accept Medicare and are taking new patients.
If you use private insurance, call your insurance customer service line or check their provider list online. Don't rely on printed lists, which can go out-of-date as quickly as they are printed. When you select a doctor in your insurance network, you know they have undergone screening by the insurance company to make sure their qualifications are up-to-date.
Hospital affiliation. In addition to making sure the doctor is in your network, check which hospitals she/he is affiliated with and that the hospital is also in your network when you contact your insurance company. If it turns out the doctor has multiple hospital affiliations, ask his office staff which hospital they admit to most frequently. Should you need a hospital stay, or experience an emergency that results in a hospital admission, your regular doctor may be called in to see you; if you are in his most-frequented hospital, your visits will be timely and more frequent.
With a list of doctors who are covered by your health plan, here are other considerations for choosing a new doctor.
Logistics. Ease of access to the doctor’s office means you are more likely not to run late to an appointment or avoid going altogether. If the office is located on hospital property, how easy is it to find parking?
What is traffic like in the part of town where the office is located?
Finding a doctor who sees patients in more than one location gives you alternatives if you cannot always see the doctor when he is in your area.
What about appointment times? If you need to make appointments outside of regular business hours or on weekends, remember to ask that question as you work through your list of feasible candidates.
Finding a Good Fit. The first time I met with the physician's assistant of my primary care doctor, I was left unimpressed and frustrated. Until recently, I had always seen the doctor instead of her assistant. I was very impressed and comfortable with her. The PA seemed not to have time for me.
I decided to give her another chance and went to my follow up appointment a few months later. It turned out to be a completely different experience. I learned that at the previous visit, the PA had a family emergency underway and was trying to deal with it between patients. Since then, our visits are as impressive and personalized as they had been when I met directly with the doctor.
Have you noticed that frequently your appointment is with a physician's assistant instead of the medical doctor? If you are seeing your primary care doctor, it is common to be seen by the PA instead. According to Consumer Reports, there is a shortage of primary care doctors in the U.S. Wait times for appointments are long, and doctors are pressured to move patients through their office.
Physician’s Assistants are highly-trained, certified professionals who practice under the supervision of a medical doctor. Before being certified, they must complete more than 2,000 hours of clinical training in conjunction with physicians. They can order medication and tests as the need requires. If your situation requires a medical doctor or if you insist on seeing only the doctor, expect a longer lead time to get an appointment.
I bring this up because I recommend that you interview candidates you are considering when you have to find a new doctor. That means you probably should talk to the PA, too, since you may be seeing a lot of them. How the office staff treats you is another consideration. Do they leave you on hold when you call to make an appointment, do they greet you and offer assistance?
What about your friends’ doctors – should you consider one of them? The short answer is maybe. As this article started out saying, it's a personal relationship, and what works for your friends or family may not work for you. But it’s a way to start screening potential candidates. Ask what they like or dislike about their current doctor to determine if you should research further or cross them off your list.
When you have narrowed your list of new doctor candidates to two or three, schedule an introductory meeting. Explain to the appointment scheduler you are selecting a new doctor and would like to meet with the doctor and/or PA to help with your decision. If you are changing doctors due to a specific complaint about how you have been treated, make sure to discuss your experience with potential candidates.
Finally, after you have made a choice and experienced a few appointments, if you decide you made a mistake it’s OK to change again.
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