Advice on how to choose a new Doctor?

[BiggJawn]

I'll bet I'm not the first one to lose trust in his Sawbones. But, what I want to know, is there an INTELLIGENT way to pick a new doctor?

I picked this guy by going down the list of PCP's and picking the first one who was accepting new patients. Worked OK, one of my co-workers reccommended him ("he's GREAT with my kids!")and for a while, it wa OK.
But the last few years, I get the feeling he listens to the Drug Salesman more than he does me. We try a pill, it doesn't work, we ADD another, and ANOTHER...I told him I was going to start exercising. NO suggestion that maybe I should have a stress-test or anything.

So, I've lost faith in the guy.

How do you go about making an intelligent choice when choosing a new doctor?

Ideas?

[FlaGranny]

1. Almost impossible to tell.

The only thing you can do is ask around. If you know any nurses who work in a hospital, they are the first ones to ask. After that, ask your friends and neighbors.

The only other thing that helps is enough experience with the doctor to either give you confidence or make you lose confidence.

[musiclawyer]

2. It's easy

Just go the the local holistic MD. There's a website that will tell you where a registered holistic MD is in your area. Most doctors are drug pushers. My experience. I started getting serious, chronic acid reflux type symptoms. My traditional doc simply says "take some Zantac and get out of here." Well, I sure did. I never went back. Went to the local holistic guy. He spoke with me for over an hour.... just asking me about my health, diet, stress levels etc. Basically got me to eat according to my blood type. Taught me about acid and alkalinity in foods. He was the one who told me that Dr. Weil was dead on in warning people to avoid HFCS. Most of the problems went away within days. And I've never had to take hard drugs, which will ultimately make the problem even worse, lead you to other drugs to contraindicate, and down that slow dead end path.

[BiggJawn]

7. Sorry, no Holistic MD's here...

I've checked several holistic doctor-finders, and nothing for Indiana...

And what's HFCS? If Dr. Weil doesn't like it, it can't be good...

[Snow]

8. There should be some osteopaths around, though -

they are just as well trained as allopaths (the traditional western doc) and they tend to lean more to the holistic side. I think the drug company reps usually have a bit harder sell with these folks as well.

[DemOverseas]

3. Interview several

Before my last son was born, I decided to go with a family doctor rather than a baby doctor. The other kids were ten and up so we could all share the same physician. I made a list of what I wanted from a doctor and took names from co workers (and my boss who was a doctor) and made appointments to interview.
My main requirement was finding someone who would work with me. I wanted someone who would trust me as much as I would trust him/her. And someone who would get to the bottom of the problem post haste and then we could work on prevention of reaccurance.
I was met politely by all I interviewed. I went with the first name on my list and it was a good choice. We worked well together on my family's health issues. I miss him.

[SiouxJ]

4. I always do a background check

first I find one from my insurance's website, then I go to my state's medical board website and do a background check. Then I ask my other doctors and nurses about him/her. You should be able to find your state's medical board site by putting in some key words like the name of the state, "background check" and "doctors." My state's site is pretty good. You can find out their education history as well as any lawsuits and/or reprimands that have been brought against them. You might want to check your local hospital's site too. My hospital's site has a similar thing; complete with pictures ;-).

[trof]

5. We have been so lucky.

Our two closest friends (I'm talkin' serious close-like brothers and sisters) are a married couple and DOCTORS! She's a GP/internist, he's an OB/GYN. Between them they can handle almost anything. But when they can't (like surgery, etc.) we just ask them who is the best (whatever) they know.

Like when our daughter had her tonsils out they told us that any decent surgeon would do, it's the ANESTHESCIST (sp?) who is the important one in that operation and then told us who THEY would pick. Maybe even more important, they told us who NOT to choose.

And all of this hasn't helped you for jack schitt. The best thing I can suggest is if you know ANY medical people, ask them. Barring that, keep asking friends.

[MissMillie]

6. Talk to other people....

who live near you: people you work with, parents at your kids school, etc. Ask them who they go to and what they like best about him/her.

[zekeson]

9. BiggJawn, I always thought you lived in the US

where the hell are you that you can actually chose a doctor?

Nah, reccs of friends, co-workers, sometimes even a friendly receptionist... good luck.

[BiggJawn]

10. Ha-ha...you berry funny goy!

Ain't it the truth..Well, with MY HMO...I gotta stop that, it's a "Managed Care Plan"... THEY say they're different, but I don't see it...

Anyway, I can "choose" from about 30 doctors. There's actually a coupla hundred on the list, but by the time I discount the ones I'd have to drive an hour to see, the ones "accepting established patients ONLY" (why don't they say "No New Patients"?) and the ones I've heard horror stories about, that leaves about 30....

So the search continues.....

[musiclawyer]

11. HFCS

High Fructose Corn Syrup--otherwise known as poison

[BiggJawn]

12. Oh, yeah, THAT stuff...

Being a Diabetic, I stay away from it. that means damn little soda pop, since they've replaced the Sucrose with that shit.

I stay away from "Nutra"-sweet, too.

[FloridaJudy]

13. Sure!

Just ask a nurse who she or he goes to. After working in a community for a few years we know which docs are really, really good.