Choosing your doctor...PO Day 104

Figuring out what qualities you want in your physician is complicated. The straight-talk some appreciate, that should make you feel like a teammate in your care, comes across as negative and unsympathetic to some people. The youth and vitality you find desirable in your surgeon, your friend looks at as immaturity and nervousness.  Grey-white hair and Ben Franklin bifocals one person sees as a sign of wisdom and experience suggests retirement is in order to another. What is a doctor to do, to be?

There are always those diplomas on the walls. And websites include the doctor's curriculum vitae, that's what school he attended, where he went for his residency, does he have any additional training, is he Board certified in his speciality. Those things are important but maybe not as important as the relationship and trust you hope to have with this person.

I want my pediatrician to be a big kid. My GP (do we still say general practitioner?) should love a good  puzzle.  My ophthalmologist needs to be picky and precise. The oncologist has to be detached enough to make the hard choices and empathetic when treatments fail. The neurologist shouldn't get on my nerves and the dermatologist shouldn't get under my skin. The cardiologist must be cool as he holds someone's heart in his hands. And I definitely want my orthopedic surgeon to have been a whiz with Tinker Toys as a child and like to assemble IKEA furniture as an adult. Are these qualities my physician learns in a course in medical school or do these personality traits unconsciously direct his career choices?

One of our family doctors, Dr. Corleone, must have taken the Dale Carnegie Course for Medical Professionals. As you sit in the exam room waiting for him, he pops his head in the door, calls you by name, and assures you he will be in with you in a moment. When he enters the room, he greets you with a two handed hand shake ala Bill Clinton. He leans forward to listen to what you have to say, his eyes locked on yours. He nods his head as he takes in your words, not quite as much as Mr. Bobblehead, but strangely reminiscent of him. He touches your forearm or your shoulder as he wraps up his opinion and escorts you to the appointment/check out desk. He is sincere and concerned. In spite of my cynicism, he draws me in. Did he learn that in med school? Did anyone else take that course?

Your doctor has to be part of your insurance network. It's a good thing if the office is convenient to your home. Is the doctor on the staff at the hospital where you prefer to go? That is often overlooked until you are about to be admitted and discover you are being sent to a hospital you would not choose. It is now possible to go on line and see how the public rates a certain physician, kind of like checking the feedback on a local tradesman. Just keep in mind two things: people who are dissatisfied are more likely to take the time to enter remarks on such a site and some referral sites work more like a phone book where the doctor pays to be included in the listing. In the first instance, the remarks are more likely to be negative and it the latter, more likely to be glowingly positive. 

Maybe I am focusing on the wrong things and not seeing what is really important. Are the folks at the front desk friendly and efficient? Do they follow through and do what they say they will? Do they answer the phone? (!) Do they run anything close to their schedule? How long do you wait to see the doctor? Maybe those are the kind of things that are really important. But they are also the kind of things, along with the doctor's personality and style, that you cannot know until you have been a patient for a while. 

Maybe, after all, those diplomas on the wall or the curriculum vitae on the web are a good starting place. 



http://youtu.be/eRULqLhxKBU

Archive timeline: 2014: May and June - preparing for surgery, July - surgery and post op problems, August - recovery and physical therapy, September..