Tips for Finding the Best Primary-Care Doctor
If you are on the hunt for a brand-new primary-care doctor, you will want to make sure that you are doing all that you can to find the best one for your needs. This way, you can start to build a long-term relationship with that doctor, and you will not have to worry about changing your healthcare provider again for a long time.
Carefully Consider Reviews
You will want to get as much information as you can from people who have firsthand experience with the doctor's treatments and mannerisms. Of course, it is important for you to remember that there is always the chance that you are going to run into some bad reviews that are nothing more than an upset patient that did not get what they wanted, such as pain killers or something of that nature. Therefore, you want to get an overall feel for the reviews. Does there seem to be more happy people than upset people? If so, then you might want to take those few negative reviews with a grain of salt.
Call with Questions
Before calling your insurance company and changing over the name of the medical provider on your insurance card, you will want to call the doctor's office to ask some general questions. The first thing you need to know is whether they are even accepting new patients at this time. Once you have established that they are taking on new patients, you will want to ask about their office hours. If you work a lot during the day, you might need a doctor that does have the occasional Saturday or evening hours. You will also want to get a feel for how quickly they are usually able to see their patients who call their office sick. For example, if you are sick today, it is not going to do much good if the doctor's office schedules all appointments three weeks out because they are always overbooked. Getting a feel for how they run things will help you determine whether that particular doctor is the one that would work out to be the best one for your specific needs.
Schedule a Well Checkup Right Away
When you believe that you have found the best new doctor for yourself, you will want to quickly schedule your first visit with him or her. This will allow you the chance to get to know your doctor a little better. By doing this, you will be able to tell whether this is the doctor you would want to have should a serious medical problem present itself. If you are not comfortable with your new doctor, go ahead and look for another until you are satisfied.
With all of those things considered, you should find that it is much easier to find a new doctor for yourself than you might have thought it was going to be.