Finding a Doctor

 
Along with the already long list of difficult considerations and decisions that must be made regarding pregnancy, birth, and the care of newborns, is selecting a doctor that will look after the baby while he is a child, and possibly into later life. Just as it was important for the mother to find a prenatal physician that she felt comfortable with, it is equally important to find a physician that agrees with her philosophies and standards in child care. The mother must find a physician that she can trust, be comfortable with, and is in agreement with her ideologies pertaining to infant health.

Finding a doctor that meets these standards can be a hard task but is worth the time and effort. After all, the mother will want what is best for the baby. This section is designed to help the mother better understand what she should be looking for when selecting a physician, and what topics she must consider and inquire about when investigating potential physicians. Ideally, the mother will have selected a doctor for the baby prior to birth. However, with the busyness of readying for birth and preparing ones life, this is often over looked and left until after the birth. In either case the considerations are the same.

The chosen physician will play a large role in the baby's life, particularly in the early years. Thus, selecting a doctor with the exact combination of professional qualifications, experience, and personal traits is vital. In selecting the baby's physician, there are numerous things to keep in mind:

ABILITY: A suitable doctor should be able to demonstrate his ability in the areas of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. Prevention refers to the doctor's awareness of the preventative measures that work and those that do not. For instance, some infant screening tests are extremely effective in the prevention of various physical and mental disabilities and should always be preformed. The physician should be aware of these.

Diagnosis refers to the doctor's ability to discover the source of the problem, whether it be fever, pain, labored breathing, or abnormal behavior. The doctor should have the skills to reach a proper diagnosis by assorted means. The first and most essential of these is the doctor's ability to communicate with the patient, or in this case the mother, because the baby is unable to speak. They must be able to ask for a description of the problem and communicate on a level that is easily understood for all. This communication aids greatly in identifying problems. The second vital means of diagnosis is physical examination; and the third is laboratory testing. Generally speaking, the more experienced and able a doctor is, the less likely it is he relies on lab tests for a diagnosis. Questions, communication, and physical exams should be enough for good doctors when dealing with common and less severe illnesses. The fourth means of diagnosis is referrals. Sometimes doctors are unable to properly diagnose and need the advice of a specialist. A good doctor will know when to refer a patient and will not have the ego that prevents them from doing so.

Treatment refers to the doctor's ability to treat a condition successfully using only essential tactics and medications. A good physician knows what treatments are most effective and have the least downside.

Rehabilitation refers to the doctor's ability to care for a child with an incurable ailment, such as asthma, and provide a life with as few limitations as possible. Essentially it is the doctor's ability to mitigate the symptoms of an illness and bring the patient back to the greatest degree of health possible.

AVAILABILITY: Infants, and children for that matter, get sick at all times - day and night. Consequently, the mother will have concerns and anxieties day and night. With experience, the mother will be able to tell when these illnesses are minor and which are serious enough to warrant attention. However, first time parents lack such experience early in their child's life. During this period it is reassuring to know that there is a physician on hand to answer your questions and ease your concerns at any time of day. This is when access and availability become legitimate concerns.

During the day time it can be extraordinarily difficult to reach a physician because he is seeing patients all day, and their phone is typically busy. Thus, it is reassuring to know that the baby's physician has multiple phone lines that make it easier to contact him if needed. The greater problem becomes access and availability during night hours, weekends, and holidays. Knowing that a physician can be contacted after-hours, or on non-work days, is comforting and provides a sense of security. Not all physicians will make themselves so available, so it is important that if this type of comfort is desired, the mother seek it out. Some doctors are not readily available, but will have an on-call partner whom they trust greatly to handle emergency situations during these times. Most after-hours problems can be solved with a phone conversation and careful questioning by the physician. It should be remembered that it is not fare or reasonable to expect a doctor to make himself available all day, seven days a week.

AFFABILITY: Affability refers to the sociability of the doctor; whether he is approachable, friendly, at ease. In fact this quality should be sought in the doctor's entire office staff. The mother should be made to feel confident to be in the care of these people and that she and the baby will be taken care of. There should be strong interpersonal skills in all of the staff, and each should be willing and able to help. The doctor should demonstrate respect, friendliness, and an ability to deal with children.

PEDIATRICIAN OR FAMILY DOCTOR? When there is a choice between selecting a pediatrician or family physician as the baby's primary healthcare provider, the decision can seem difficult. Pediatricians are practitioners who have had four years of specialized training working specifically with children. As to whether one provides better care than the other, it is difficult to say and depends entirely on the individual physician. Essentially it is up to the mother to ask around and interview different doctors, whether they are family doctors or pediatricians, to find if their abilities, availability, and affability meet her standards. It would be incorrect to say that pediatricians provide better care simply because they are specialists in the field of children's healthcare. Their availability and affability may be lacking and their abilities may not make up for this.

Intangible Considerations: the mother should not underestimate her instinctive judgments regarding a potential physician. Despite the fact that a doctor may be able answer all the mother's questions in a satisfactory manner, and seems to meet all the requirements does not mean they are in fact right for the job. If the mother is feeling instinctually opposed to the physician she is interviewing, she should not consider making him the baby's healthcare provider.

How to Find a Physician

There are a number of ways to go about finding candidates to interview for the position of the baby's healthcare provider. Some, the mother may find, work better than others.

1. The mother should ask friends, relatives, and neighbors about the physicians that looked after their children. She must be sure to enquire about the quality of care given by both the physician and their staff. Also, the mother should be sure to check her insurer's list of doctors that are covered by her benefit plan. The mother can also ask for recommendations of physicians from other physicians that she has dealt with in the past.

2. The mother should then call the offices of the physicians that have been recommended. Call during the day, night and weekends to see what sort of response is received during each time. If, on nights and weekends, there is no response, not even an answering machine asking for a message so that he can call the mother back eliminate the physician from the list of possible candidates.

3. The mother should then visit the office of the physician that ranks top on her list. Call ahead to ensure that the physician is taking on new patients at the time. When making an appointment to meet with the doctor, the mother should be honest and tell the staff that she is interested in finding a physician for her child and would like to ask the doctor some questions to determine whether or not he meets her standards and has philosophies agreeable to her own.

Questions to Ask When Interviewing Doctors and their Staff

There are a series of questions that the mother should consider asking potential candidates in order to help the mother decide which best meets her requirements and desires:

Questions to Ask the Physician's Staff:

1. Is the doctor covered by my insurance benefit plan?

2. Does the waiting room have separate wait areas for sick and non-sick children?

3. How does their office handle insurance/billing claims and payments?

4. How much time is allotted to each patient when visiting with the doctor?

5. What will my co-payment be?

6. How far in advance should well baby visits be scheduled?

7. What are the physician's educational background, training, and experience?

8. What is the average cost of well baby visits, immunizations, and sick visits?

9. Which hospitals does the doctor have privileges at?

10. Does the office provide free educational material or classes?

11. Are there other doctors in the practice? Can my child receive medical attention from them if my doctor is unavailable?

12. When I call after hours, will there be some one to answer my calls? Who? Is there a charge for the calls? How quickly are calls returned?

13. What are the office hours and holiday work policies?

14. Does the clinic have any pediatric nurse practitioners or physician assistants that will be involved in the baby's care?

Questions to ask the Physician

1. How long have you been practicing medicine?

2. Will my feelings and opinions be seriously considered in all healthcare related discussions and decisions regarding the baby?

3. What can be said about the other doctors and nurses in your practice?

4. If you are not available, who will cover for you? Are their philosophies similar to yours and will I receive identical treatment from them?

5. In which types of situations would you ask that I take the baby immediately to the emergency room rather than seeing you? If I were to take the baby to the emergency room, would I contact you to inform you of what was happening?

6. What type of role do you want new parents to play in the healthcare of their child?

7. Under what circumstances would you want to be contacted regarding a health concern (i. e. what type of symptoms warrant calling you?)

8. How often are well baby visits and what actions are taken at each of them? Do you do any care beyond the minimum requirements of the well baby visit?

9. Do you provide parental guidance beyond healthcare issues?

10. What type of testing is done directly in the office?

Philosophies

Before meeting with a potential physician, the mother should make sure that she has a strong sense of what her philosophies on various subjects are. The subjects that she should have formulated an opinion on include:

- Breastfeeding-Bottle Feeding debate

- Contraception and Nursing

- Daycare

- Returning to Work after Labor

- Where the baby should sleep

- Feeding and solid foods

- Circumcision

Print this page