The doctor is thorough and competent Krughoff says that consumers can certainly make some judgments about this by determining if he or she takes a thorough medical history."Does he give you helpful medical advice by phone, even when it's not an emergency and doesn't just say 'come in.'" Responds quickly "Will he call you back the same day if you have a medical question and in a few minutes if it's an emergency and arranges to see you in a day or two?" Krughoff says.Here is a list of reasonable expectations that patients can have about the service the doctor provides:
"You may prefer someone who is fresh in training and will be available to you for many years to come or someone who is more seasoned and has seen a little of everything." Though many consumers choices of picking a doctor is limited by their health insurance plan, these things to look for are good to remember. Graduation date from medical school "You may be interested in how long the doctor has been in practice," says Krughoff. When you are choosing a cardiologist, cardiac surgeon or general surgeon, you certainly want to make sure they are affiliated with a good hospital." "It's good news to you if a doctor admits patients to good hospitals and he or she is more likely to know specialists there. Hospital affiliation "You want to know where you are going to be admitted," says Krughoff. This doesn't mean only choose doctors who have teaching responsibilities, but it's a good sign." Or, they may have a student in their office. Those newly minted doctors get taught by someone and it's often doctors who practice in the middle of the week. Many good hospitals have residency programs, which are advanced training programs for doctors. Many doctors may spend a few times a week teaching new doctors at hospitals.
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You don't have to be a full time teacher to have teaching responsibility. Hospital teaching responsibilities Krughoff says, "It shows respect from colleagues and shows that he's up on things. You don't have to be board certified to be in the book, but the doctors who other doctors recommended were much more likely to be board certified" Krughoff explains. In addition to that, you had to pass a difficult exam. It means you've taken advance training and in some cases, three years or seven years after medical school. "Is he accessible by phone if you have a question? Does he seem to be thorough? Does he remember what treatments and tests he or she has given you in the past? Does he seem to be familiar with your case? Does the doctor follow-up when you are referred to a specialist? Does he coordinate your care?"īoard certified "There's really no reason for them not to be. Referrals from friends "They can find out if the doctor takes enough time to talk to you," says Krughoff. Here are some ways that Krughoff in accordance with the guide recommends how we can choose a good doctor. If there were, they didn't get on the list. We also tell the consumer, how many doctors recommended these doctors." Krughoff says that they also checked to see if there were records of disciplinary action. For internal medicine physicians, just 3 mentions. "In San Francisco allergists had to have at least 7 mentions and for cardiac surgeons in that city they had to have at least 10 mentions. "We added all into a large data base and we matched up doctors mentioned by various doctors," he says.Īfter entering the responses in a large data base, the researchers looked for physicians who were mentioned at least 3 times by other doctors and in many fields, in many metropolitan areas, the cut off may have been that the doctor had to be mentioned 5 or 10 times. He says they received almost 20,000 questionnaires back. Others may have felt comfortable naming 15 fields.
Krughoff explains that some may have only mentioned a handful because they only had knowledge of a few specialty fields. In the survey, each of the doctors in each of the 34 specialty fields were asked to name one or two physicians that they would consider most desirable to care of a loved one.
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