How to Choose a Family Doctor
Choosing a family doctor can be one of the most important decisions that you'll ever make. A family doctor is someone who can care for your whole family for their entire lives. In these days of managed care, having a first-rate family doctor can do wonders for your family's health.
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Instructions
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Decide what kind of practice you would like best. A large practice with many doctors may have longer office hours, emergency hours and/or more than one office. At a smaller practice, the care may be more individualized but it may be more difficult to get an appointment. Ask friends what their experiences have been like.
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Check your insurance options. Find out which practices are covered by your insurance. Then you can narrow down your list by your size preference.
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Get recommendations. Armed with the list of family practice doctors in your area that are covered by your insurance and whose practices are the correct size, ask friends and acquaintances about them. You can also check doctor review sites such as RateMDs.com, Vitals.com or Bookofdoctors.com. Hopefully this will narrow your family practice list even further.
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Visit the practices on your list. Call for an appointment and explain that you are looking for a family doctor. Use the visit to learn about the practice's policies, get a feel for the staff's friendliness and to ask questions.
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Question the potential doctors. If your children are young, find out about vaccination policies, child-rearing philosophy and rates of antibiotic prescriptions. Also make sure to ask about hospital affliations, possibility of telephone consultations, diagnostic facilities' (x-rays, for example) locations, after hours care, how far apart are appointments scheduled (the closer they are the more likely you'll have to do some waiting) and whether you can contact them through email.
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Write a priority list. Is it more important to you to have a doctor close by or one who doesn't charge for telephone consultations? Do you need to have the same child-rearing philosophy or would you rather have the warmest staff?
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Compare what you learned at the doctor visits with your priority list. Which practice meets your highest priority criteria? Now you've found your family doctor.
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Tips & Warnings
During your doctor visits, you may meet a doctor or walk into a practice and feel right at home. While hard to qualify, it's vital that you (and your family) feel comfortable with your doctor. Make sure you take that into account.
While doctor rating sites can be an informative tool, rely on advice from people you actually know over what people write on message boards.
