Finding a Primary Care Doctor

Buddy Lee

Okay, so I'm 20 years old and I figure it's about time for me to find my own primary care doctor. I would like to get a physical to make sure that my cholesterol is at a healthy range, that there are no early symptoms of some dangerous stuff, etc.

Does anyone have any tips for finding an appropriate primary care doctor? I would rather not just look at the directory and pick a doctor at random...

VisionOfClarity

Do you have insurance?

lordrel

Really it's a function of choosing someone your insurance covers and someone who is accepting new patients (ask them or your insurance company). After that, you just need to pick one and see if you like them. You can sometimes get a little information about them (like what school they went too, their specialties, ect) if they have a website...but I've found that many docs ignore that spectrum.

Sometimes it's best just to go with your gut, then change to another one if you don't like the first one.

Daenris

When picking, I've usually just asked coworkers or others on the same insurance plan for recommendations on doctors. After I have a few, I check to see if they're accepting new patients and then schedule an appointment to see how I like them. It usually works out just a tad bit better then when I used to randomly pick a name from the insurance list.

Alternatively, if you don't know anyone on the same insurance plan or whatever, you can just ask friends/family/whoever for recommendations on local doctors, then check your insurance to see if they're on the list of PCPs.