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Finding a Doctor
CycloneRanger
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Well, there's nothing really wrong with me, but it's been something like a decade since I saw a GP and I imagine that's something I should do a little more often. I've no idea how to go about this, or how to choose a doctor. I've got insurance, and a quick search for in-network providers returns a few in my area. What kind of criteria should I be using to narrow this down?
Should I prefer someone with a more recent degree, or an older one? Is there something besides educational history that's readily available and that I ought to be considering? Apparently there are actually two types of medical degrees in the US; you can practice with a DO or an MD. Some surface-level Internet research has made me pretty skeptical regarding a DO; it sounds a lot like chiropractic quackery. Have I reached the wrong conclusion here, or should I prefer a doctor with an MD?
Any advice would be appreciated. I don't have any nearby family or friends to pull recommendations from.
Should I prefer someone with a more recent degree, or an older one? Is there something besides educational history that's readily available and that I ought to be considering? Apparently there are actually two types of medical degrees in the US; you can practice with a DO or an MD. Some surface-level Internet research has made me pretty skeptical regarding a DO; it sounds a lot like chiropractic quackery. Have I reached the wrong conclusion here, or should I prefer a doctor with an MD?
Any advice would be appreciated. I don't have any nearby family or friends to pull recommendations from.
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As for age, it's really up to you and what you're comfortable with. Some people want a grandfatherly figure for their doctor, others prefer someone younger they can relate to.
Quick look on Wikipedia indicates that DO is MD with a little more training in musculoskeletal areas, plus a few hundred hours of hands on work. MDs are more common, I'd never actually heard of a DO until you asked about it.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
But other things to consider. The office personnel. I went to an amazing practice with a mediocre office. The wait was long and the office took too long getting results back to me, but the dr I saw was just fantastic.
My wife is an MD. She's worked with plenty of good DOs. I've managed both MDs and DOs and seen good and bad examples of both in similar proportions. The best general practitioner I've ever seen personally was a DO who did his residency in Internal Medicine. For me, that's the distinction I would look for rather than MD vs DO. General practitioners usually have a background in either Internal Medicine or Family Medicine, and I prefer docs with an IM background. Mostly a personal preference though.
Other than that, being board certified is a good thing. And I prefer doctors who aren't too old, as my wife and I have both had frustrations professionally dealing with older doctors who refuse to adapt to some modern procedures and techniques, or changes to previously preferred treatments due to new evidence.
As far as finding a good PCP for you, consider looking for some that have private practices in or at hospital premises. Sometimes your insurance will consider it a hospital visit and not an office visit, which can be a lower copay. I would recommend, though, that you try to always do this procedure for specialists, since almost every insurance plan I've seen has a higher specialist copay than hospital visit.
Whatever doctor you pick, if you don't get a good vibe or feel like they won't work with you, find a different one. You want someone who doesn't talk over you, and who is prepared to trust you as a patient.
Here you go. Dr. McCoy is good, don't know about any of the others, but I believe they are accepting new patients and the office staff is good. I'm not sure they're in your network but the office is big enough that I'd bet they are.
Something to consider though: most insurance plans won't cover random GP/Internist appointments. You can get in if you can think of something wrong with you that might need to be looked at, but your insurer probably doesn't consider it worth their cash to pay for a visit unless there's something wrong or the doctor says (s)he wants to see you. And thus the office won't make an appointment.
Also yeah there's no practical difference between MDs and DOs.
Osteopathy (Osteopathic manipulative medicine) is pretty much quackery, but a DO also learns basically all the stuff a regular MD learns. And a lot of DO's don't give much of a shit for OMM.
I don't think you need to avoid DOs. Though perhaps you can ask any one you end up with about their views with regards to OMM.
http://www.hampdenmedicalgroup.com/Providers/
Kaiser in Englewood is ok, but I'm not really a fan of how Kaiser does business, asking for a referal is like pulling teeth.
www.vitals.com is a good place to start.
Umm... from personal experience of having the worst time finding a doctor after walking around with a chronic illness for the past year: depending on your circumstances, if you have a big hospital near you, just go see a doctor directly through it. YMMV, but I wasn't getting anywhere until I went to an actual hospital. They were no-nonsense, immediately brainstormed the right differential diagnosis path, and the nicest thing? They can do a lot of the tests and stuff while you're still there. Also, they generally have a larger pool of people to consult with. However, if you don't think whatever you have is difficult to diagnose, you'll probably be fine just going to a clinic.