# How do I find a good doctor?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-a-good-doctor/250421>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 15, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-a-good-doctor/250421 "2004-06-15T02:26:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Parthol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Parthol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parthol)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-a-good-doctor/250421/1 "2004-06-15T02:26:44Z")

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We’ve recently moved, and my wife is interested in finding a doctor in the area, particularly since she might become pregnant in the near future. 🙂 What is the best way to find a good one, given that, in this new locale, personal referral isn’t much of an option? Is there anything akin to the Better Business Bureau for doctors? Any on-line resource where one can find out if there have been complaints against a particular physician or hospital? Will doctors give references to patients they’ve had?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-P

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**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-a-good-doctor/250421/2 "2004-06-15T04:02:55Z")

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Your best resource is probably your new co-workers, but lately, a lot of doctors have websites. Do a search for your town. Some of them list their philosophy toward certain complaints, and you can get a good feel for what they’re like.

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**Author:** ![Parthol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Parthol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parthol)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-a-good-doctor/250421/3 "2004-06-15T15:30:14Z")

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> [@Lissa](#):
>
> Your best resource is probably your new co-workers, but lately, a lot of doctors have websites. Do a search for your town. Some of them list their philosophy toward certain complaints, and you can get a good feel for what they’re like.

Well, we don’t have new co-workers, just old ones, but none of them live that close to our new home. As for a doctors’ personal web-site, that strikes me as a less-than-objective souce of information, but we’ll check some out to see what they’re like. My wife has spent a while checking the web already, but while the sites she’s found _list_ doctors, they don’t provide objective third-party opinions about any of them, which is what we’d like.

-P

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**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-a-good-doctor/250421/4 "2004-06-16T03:34:29Z")

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When I moved here, I asked my old doctor if he could help me find a good doctor here. His recommendation was to go to a few pharmacies and ask the pharmacists. He said they deal with doctors every day and know who is good and who is bad.

HTH