Choosing a Doctor

Lately I have been thinking about my expectations: for other people, myself, situations, life. I have been known to have strong opinions and a tendency to pass judgment, but I would like to think that I keep an open-mind and put my best judgment to use in critical situations. One group of people that I consistently hold to a high standard are doctors. I expect them to ask good questions. I expect them to answer mine clearly and honestly. I expect them to do a basic, yet complete medical exam when I take the time to make an appointment and shell out a co-payment. I don't have to like them on a personal level. They don't have to remember any personal details about me, if they are capable of reading it off my chart.

It's Personal....
Going to a doctor means talking about your personal history, your health, your pain, your eating, exercising, and sexual habits. It is like writing a blog, only instead of sharing selective details with virtual friends you have to share all your details face-to-face with a virtual stranger. Going to a doctor also means being touched, prodded and poked. And if these things happen while blogging you are probably doing something wrong :)

Lightheartedness aside, I find it incredibly nerve-wracking to choose a new doctor. I moved to DC a little over two years ago and received new insurance through my job. It took me more than 8 months of researching and calling hospitals and clinics to settle on a primary doctor. I wanted a female practicing general internal medicine, but between my HMO's restrictions and not having a car, I could only find a male located at a small medical practice at the far end of a bus line. I went to him for a baseline appointment that lasted barely 15 minutes. He asked very few questions about my personal history, did no physical exam (other than listening to my heart) and generally did not seem to understand why I would come to see him if I wasn't sick. Frankly, it was a bizarre experience.

Shortly after that appointment I found a gynecologist, whom I love, through a referral from a friend. I decided I didn't really need to love my primary because I just wouldn't go back unless I felt sick. Fast forward a year and I got a concussion as motivation to go back to that doctor. But I didn't go. I self-medicated and waited it out rather than go back to see him. I just disliked my experience so much that I had no desire to go through a 30-minute bus ride to see a doctor I didn't trust. Once my head healed I realized that it was time to find a new primary.

The second search for a doctor took just as much patience and just as many calls, but I finally found a female doctor at a local hospital who was accepting new patients with my insurance. I waited two months for an appointment only to have it canceled by Snowmageddon (see my prior post) and then had to wait another month to get rescheduled. I finally met her today. I love my new doctor!

I had to wait twenty minutes in the exam room before meeting her (experience has told me this is pretty standard), but once she arrived she spent over 40 minutes with me. A complete medical history was taken and my concerns over the cost of prescriptions were resolved by her writing several scripts for me to hand over at CVS and ask them to give me the cheapest option. I was given a referral to a dermatologist and a positive recommendation for a specific doctor. I was then given a complete physical exam, a tetanus booster and sent to the outpatient lab to have some baseline blood work done. Over two hours after I arrived, I left with a sore arm but a good feeling about the quality of medical care I had received.

It makes me wonder: which experience was more unique? The doctor that barely fulfilled the basic medical requirements of an office visit or the one that spent the better part of an hour giving me the kind of attention and medical care I could only hope for from a primary?