5 Tips For Choosing A New Primary Care Physician

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In this day and age, there are plenty of health risks and one of the most important things for your family’s well-being is finding a good medical care. This starts from choosing the right primary care physician, who is the first person you are going to address when you or some of your family members are having health problems. This is the doctor that follows your state 24/7 and that is sending you to routine checks and screenings. Basically they are the “gatekeepers” of complex medical system. Depending on you insurance you will be able to choose from several to several dozen of “in-network” doctors. Every insurance company will give you the list of these doctors who will charge you much less than other primary care practitioners. When choosing your primal care doctor you also need to have some of these things in mind:

Always Choose by Recommendation

This is one of the best ways to find a knowledgable and professional primary care physician. Most of the people decide to follow recommendations from their friends and family, but you should also take into consideration referrals from other medical practitioners like your dentist, pharmacist, other physicians etc.

Check the State of Phycisian’s Office

It is important for your physician’s office to be well equiped. Before choosing you should always check the state of the office, technical equipment and the level of hygiene inside the building. Right doctor should have clean and comfortable office, with up to date tech equipment and regularly delivered medical supplies.

Check Phycisian’s Qualifications

If you’re following your insurance list of “in-network” doctors, you are probably not going to find a physician without a necessary qualifications, but this is definitely worth checking because there are different kinds of primary care doctors and it is important to choose the one with qualification that match your needs in the best possible way. There are doctors specialised in family practice, pediatrics, internal medicine, general practice etc.

Location, Location, Location!… and Working Hours

It is important that your primary care doctor’s office is easily accessible from the place where you live. It should be in the same neighbourhood and have longer working hours so you don’t need to take time off from work for visiting. Some doctors also communicate with their patients by email or on their clinic’s web site, which is very practical and time saving, especially if they use electronic health records which enables easier communication between you, primary care physician and different medical specialists.

Check Your Phycisian’s Appointment Policy

It’s important that your doctor’s office enables its patients to appoint meetings on the same day. Ability to appoint meetings by e mail or on clinic’s web site is another good thing that will save you from dealing with answering machines. Appointing staff of your phycisian’s office should be friendly and professional which you should check on your first visit by striking up a conversation with them about their clinic’s appointment policy.

Finding a good primary care physician for all members of your family is one of the most important tasks for creating a healthy home environment. There are families that visit the same reliable and trustworthy physicians for several decades. One of the basics of a good doctor to patient relationship is that there should be no secrets between you your phycisian, since your good health is the most important concern for both.

 

2 Comments

  1. I like that you included the bit about the importance of insuring that your primary medical provider is able to appoint meetings on the same day. Medical emergencies can be frightening. A close relative of mine had severe depression and the fact that she could make an appointment with her medical provider helped so much.

  2. You advised that you should always choose your primary care doctor by recommendation from family and friends. I recently just moved, to be closer to some of my family. I’ll have to ask my sister who she goes to, and if she recommends them. I trust my sister totally, and would feel more comfortable going to a doctor that I know has already taken care of my family.

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