How to Choose a Good Doctor

Have you moved lately? Have you switched jobs or medical insurance plans? Sometimes the big changes in life come with another big change – changing your primary care physician. Much like a good mechanic is important a good physician is vital to keep your body running in great shape and to make sure that you remain healthy.

So where do you begin? Where do you look and how do you choose the right primary care physician? With more than two hundred listings appearing in the local Yellow Pages the search can be overwhelming, but it's not enough to close your eyes and see what name your finger lands onin the directory.

"You are trusting with your body and your life so this is a very important issue," said Dr. Seema Anjum, a primary care physician for Sunrise Hospitals.

Before you even begin to search for a primary care physician you have to figure out what kind of doctor you want.

The National Institute of Health recommends choosing between a family practitioner and internist or a geriatrician.

A family practitioner is a doctor who provides health care for people of all ages and can therefore serve as the primary physician for the entire family regardless of age.

An internist doctor is a doctor for adults and sometimes you can find an internist who specializes in specific medical conditions such as a cardiology, gastroenterology and oncology. If you have a specific medical condition you might want to consider an internist who specializes in the same area as your medical condition.

Lastly another type of primary physician to go with is a geriatrician. Geriatricians are doctors who specialize in the care of older adults who are 65 or older. These doctors can better address issues that are specific to the older population such as Alzheimer's, memory loss and osteoporosis among other diseases.

You also have to decide if you feel more comfortable with a male or female doctor and whether you want to consult with a doctor who has a solo practice or is part of a group practice.

An article in the New York times suggests that experts recommend using a physician who is part of a group practice because they have other doctors who can cover you in case they are gone and they also tend to be more efficient and up to date on current medical practice. On the other hand you may find the experience of a solo practice more intimate and less stressful as there are usually less patients in the waiting room.

It is also common that specialized internist has solo practices and therefore that might be an important factor to consider.

If you are new to town Dr. Anjum recommends asking co-workers for referrals since they not only have a better idea of good doctors in town but are also familiar with what your company's medical plan offers as far as physician options.

This can also be a good way to break the ice and make conversations in a new work environment.

Dr. Anjum says that a lot of her patients come from referrals from friends and co-workers.

However, what is good for one person isn't always good for the next person, according to Dr. Laura Addis an internal medicine physician, which is why it's important to do your own research before depending entirely on a referral.

Before you meet any physician Addis recommends checking up on their credentials and making sure that they are board certified.

Doctors who are board certified have had training after medical school and have passed an exam certifying them in certain fields of medicine.

You can check your physicians' certification status with the American Board of Medical Specialties (www.abms.org), and certain other websites like healthgrades.com.

Once you pick out one or a few physicians, doctors recommend asking for an interview with the doctor. Not all physicians have the time to schedule an interview and might have to charge for the visit but it's important to get to know who you will be trusting to take proper care of you.

Some other questions to consider according to Medicine.net is where the practice is located? In case of an emergency would it be easy to get there? You also want to consider what hospital the doctor uses and if you are comfortable with being treated at that hospital should it become necessary.

Are the essential screenings such as routine x-rays and laboratory studies done in the office or do they have to be done in an outside laboratory? This is very important because if you have a very busy schedule or have reasons to get frequent lab work done, it can take a lot of time traveling back and forth to get the procedures and get the results in two different places.

It's important to know how long you must wait for an appointment; some doctors are usually booked for weeks and even months and makes scheduling a challenge.

You should also ask if the office processes insurance claims themselves or if you must pay up-front for services and manage the payments and claims yourself.

Dr. Addis recommends asking the physician if they do year-end analysis, what kind of screenings they do and whether they are available for emergencies.

"That's an important question to ask a doctor because I see so many patients going to Quick Care when they could have just called me. I always make myself available to my patients. You have to know if your doctor is available on the weekends and if they have someone covering for them. It saves quite a bit of aggression," said Dr. Addis.

Dr. Addis also says to make sure you ask about what kind of insurance they accept and what kind of exams they will give you, on her end she considers herself to practice preventative care.

"I am very thorough and I have a very loyal following. They know that when they come with me we will go through a list of screenings," said Dr. Addis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that while 82 percent of adults visited a health care professional within the past year only 42 percent of those visits where with the primary care physician.

According to Dr. Addis, if patients visited with their primary care physician more often and had regular screenings they can prevent diseases before they get out of hand.

However, a relationship with your doctor goes beyond questions, screenings and factual data, Dr. Anjum says that choosing a physician has a lot to do with the relationship.

"As a patient you should like your doctor. The way they come into the room and the way they introduce themselves is important. There should be likeness if there is no likeness there is no trust, you should like your doctor as a person," said Dr. Anjum.

In order to get an idea as to whether you can build that type of bond with your doctor you should have an interview visit with them and take the time to get to know them. Dr. Anjum recommends taking your time and asking your doctor everything that concerns you; if they are too rushed or too hurried they may not be the doctor for you.

"That is the base of trust when you can communicate with your doctor and know they'll spend time with you and she's not going to walk away," said Dr. Anjum.

"I always them I am going to sit here and wait till I answer all your questions."

That patient to doctor relationship is also very important to Dr. Addis who does whatever she can to make sure her patients are healthy.

"I don't ever want my patients to feel they can't get certain things done if they can't afford something I refer to them to a lot of patient assistance programs. I always tell my patients ‘Let's get taken care of what we can get taken care of and we'll work with you' because there are many circumstances," said Addis.

While not all doctors are as generous many still have a sincere interest in helping their patients and that, according to Dr. Anjum and Dr. Addis should be the selling point.

"I take my job very seriously as a primary care physician you have a lot of responsibilities and you always have to be available for your patients," said Dr. Anjum.