How to Find the Right Medical Doctor for You

Almost all of us have been in the situation where we need to find a doctor. Whether it is because we have moved, our doctor has retired or we need a specialist to treat our new condition, a method to find the perfect doctor is paramount to our good health. Most of us start our search by asking friends and relatives. That is a fairly good place to start but keep in mind; we are not looking for the best shoe store here. The problem is that the ordinary person has no way of judging the skill and clinical expertise of a doctor. Most of the time, the recommendation is based on personality. While personality is important, we also need to know the competence of the physician in question.

Here then are the important things to check for when you are in search for a new doctor.

Is the doctor board certified in the specialty for which you need him or her? If a doctor says they are board certified but the certification is for a specialty you do not need, what good is that? Look up the physician at abms.org which is the website for the American Board of Medical Specialties.

Does the doctor have a clean record? Not all doctors are equally competent so you need to check to make sure they are currently licensed and have no disciplinary charges against them. Go to docboard.org and enter their name to find out this information. You may need to link to the state medical board from this site to complete your search.

Is the doctor affiliated with a good hospital? If and when you need to have surgery done, you will be admitted to the hospital where the doctor has privileges. Is that hospital good? You can look up the hospital and compare it with others at the government's website, hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

How old is your prospective doctor? A surprise here is researchers at Harvard Medical School found that younger doctors were better at following more current treatment guidelines and suggest lifesaving screening tests more often. Additional benefit, a younger doctor won't be retiring soon where you need to go through the whole "find a doctor" scenario again.

Does the doctor have good "bedside manner"? Does she/he take the time to talk to you? Do you feel comfortable with them? You will need to feel comfortable with them as you will no doubt be discussing some delicate and sensitive maters with them.

Research done at the University of Michigan, suggests that surgical experience makes a difference. Not only the experience of the doctor doing the surgery, but the experience of the hospital where the type of surgery you need takes place. While there is no magic number, here are some guidelines for the experience of the physician:

LASIK - has completed at least 1,000 surgeries

Heart bypass - More than 150 a year

Gastric bypass - at least 100