Finding A Better Primary Care Doctor

A dear girlfriend of mine two years ago developed a mysterious illness with a series of what appeared unrelated symptoms that triggered a hospital admission and a life threatening rare illness.  She had one of those “one in a million” diagnoses that only a TV doctor character like House could solve. What ultimately saved her life was her primary care provider (PCP), a seasoned internist, who had provided her care for a number of years, recognized she was in trouble.   He knew the best specialists in the community to call in for consultations while she was an inpatient and ultimately they made a diagnosis that saved her life. Had she been admitted through the ER without her PCP, she most likely would have been admitted multiple times with a few false starts before a cause of illness was found.

I have several other friends in recent years, all who were diagnosed with an early cancer during annual routine checkups with their primary care physician.  Their personal physicians found their cancer early on and identified the best team players for cancer treatment, recovery and a survival plan within their communities. In an unexpected health crisis, having an established relationship with a primary care physician paves the way for better access to quality specialist care.

We all pray that a scary diagnosis is not in our future.  If we are proactive, our efforts to exercise, reduce stress, get adequate rest and eat right work to prevent most life threatening diseases.   In the event a serious illness or condition appears, our entry in the rabbit hole of our healthcare system is most often through our PCP.  We also rely heavily on him or her to determine, order and interpret the necessary surveillance testing to catch potentially harmful disease early, so intervention and treatment can be accessed sooner than later.

Given how important your primary care doctor’s role is in your personal health, I thought it would be worth talking about how to find a great PCP.  Sometimes we have someone we someone we don’t connect with very well or something changes like our health insurance plan, and we need to find a new provider.  I personally had to go through this process a few weeks ago, and I found a gem of a new doctor through doing a little research online and talking to a few friends in the healthcare field.

In today’s world, I would search for someone current in primary care who has had at least ten years of clinical experience, is board certified and ideally has a clinical appointment teaching in a university setting or hospital training program.  Physicians who supervise other physicians in training are usually current on the latest research, standards of care, and knowledgeable about your communities specialists.  With ten years of experience or more, they have referred thousands of patients to specialists and have seen the results with specialist care.  Quality specialists will send back a consultation as well as an test results letting the primary care physician know how their patient is progressing.  After a few years in practice, a great PCP knows who are the best specialists in your community.

Your search for an ideal physician should start with your health insurance website as well as informally asking friends, a nurse, or doctor you know personally.  Most nurses and physicians are very cautious about who they see for their own healthcare.  When you search for a primary care doctor in your community through your health insurance preferred providers website, you have access to the name of the medical school, residency program they competed and year completed.  This allows you to get a sense of how long they have been practicing since graduation as well as knowing if their training was near your community.    In addition, most sites will let you know if they are board certified and in what speciality.

Once you have a list of potential candidates from your health insurance website, you can Google the physician name and town to bring up the physician on physician rating websites.  Healthgrades.com and Vitals.com have patient surveys on most practicing physicians that let you know more about their patient’s perception of the office setting, bedside manner, accurate diagnosis, and expected waiting time in waiting room.  These websites are relatively new so there may not be as much data as you would like yet, but that will improve. Once you have a short list of physician candidates, then you can call the office to make an appointment to interview the doctor.  A big plus includes finding a physician with a nursing staff that communicates by email so you don’t have to wade through automated voice messages.  An office that is using EMR (electronic medical records) will have the ability to send your records instantaneously to any referral physician avoiding long waits to be seen by a specialist.

When it’s time to meet your new physician, arrive a few minutes early to check out the front office and waiting area.   It is always worth confirming with receptionist that the prospective doctor is on your health plan before that first visit.  The savings in seeing a preferred provider within your health plan can translate into many dollars in a very short time. Look around, and notice if the space clean and organized.  Does the office run smooth and efficient?   When you interview a physician, most people know within 10 minutes or so if this is someone they could trust with their most valuable asset, their health.

I interviewed a specialist a few weeks ago a friend recommended for speciality care.  My visit began with a nurse taking my complete medical history before seeing the physician. Very quickly I sensed she didn’t understand my answers, but she was plowing ahead to the next question on her forms anyway. After a very long wait, the physician entered the room and started the conversation with the statement, “We don’t need to go over your history because that is what my nurse does”.  At that point, my first red flag went up.

When a physician takes a medical history, this is the first opportunity for the patient to articulate his or her story about why they are seeking care.  The medical history is the basis of building a connection between the doctor and the patient.  When a physician opts out of history taking with a new patient that doctor is signaling that building a lasting therapeutic relationship with the patient is not their priority.   As we talked, more red flags appeared and I knew I had to keep looking for a different doctor.  Listen to your gut instinct, and you will know when you find someone who is a good fit for you.  Once it’s a go, sign a records release to transfer all of your old records to your new physician. This will give your new doctor access to all your previous records including vaccinations, testing results, problem lists and medication records.

Giving your new physician access to your past records will save you time and money in the long run.   When your world is already transaction heavy, taking on a project to find a new physician may seem inconvenient but having a quality primary care physician overseeing your professional health needs is like having an added value insurance policy available whenever you need it.

I am available to set up an initial no charge consultation to discuss personal health coaching for anyone interested in upgrading their health through optimal health planning, goal setting and lifestyle changes.  A health coach introductory package will be offered only if I believe a good fit for coaching exists.   This time around I have added a new section on my website under About Your Coach tab http://healthcoachadvantage.com/about-the-coach that includes personal testimonials from some of my private health coaching clients as I celebrate the first year anniversary of my private health coaching practice.