I’m on my third doctor since moving to this city, and am still not happy with any of them, for various reasons. Brief summary:
Doc #1: Pleasant bedside manner, but seems less than knowledgeable about diabetes-related issues, which is problematic since I am borderline type 2 diabetic. Last straw was when we had a condom “oops” one weekend evening, the night before a scheduled flight out of town for a week. I called my doc on Sunday morning to see if I could go to their clinic and get the morning after pill and she sounded very offended that I had even asked about such an evil, evil thing, and refused to tell me where I could get one. (Finally wound up getting it at the nearest ER.)
Doc #2: Pleasant bedside manner, seemed relatively knowledgeable about diabetes, didn’t have any issues discussing contraception of any sort. Decided to switch anyway after calling her office about an injured leg and being told that the next available appointment was in 12 days, and that this was standard procedure for sick-day calls. Sigh.
Doc #3: I went in with a leg injury. I’d fallen down our steep, hardwood stairs two weeks earlier, and had a huge goose egg on my shin that was slightly painful to walk on and EXTREMELY painful when touched in the slightest way. I was concerned that it wasn’t healing properly. Doctor examined it very quickly, dismissively told me that it wasn’t broken, and when I asked if it was normal to experience numbness in a bruised area like that, chuckled, said “Well, I’ve never seen that, no, but it’s not broken, I wouldn’t worry” (You’ve never seen that before but you wouldn’t worry? What am I missing here?) and left the exam room.
Why is it so hard to find a good doctor? Am I being too picky here? I don’t know anybody locally that can give me a recommendation. (I’m in Columbus, Ohio, so if you know a good GP around here, please let me know.) If you have a good doctor, how did you find him/her?
Why didn’t you go to the ER for the leg? Most office doctors don’t take same-day appointments. I’d stick with the second doctor and go to the ER when you’re injured.
I didn’t go to the ER for the leg because it wasn’t hurting me much to walk on and it seemed to me to be a “hmm, this isn’t healing properly, I wonder if I should get it looked at or if I should be doing something differently” problem rather than a “holy crap, I broke my leg” problem. Over the years I’ve lived in a few different cities and had several different GPs, and with the exception of doctor #2 mentioned in my OP, all of them have been able to get me in on the same day or at the outside, the next day, when I’ve called in with an illness.
I generally try to avoid going to the ER whenever possible. I figure that if I go there for every piddly little ear infection or minor leg injury or whatever, it just makes it that much harder for the ER docs to treat the people who actually need emergency assistance.
All three of those doctors are giving sub-standard care, but from what you’ve described, all but the contraception judgemental issue are about par for the course here. We are having no end of doctor problems here - doctors seem to think we should all have family doctors, but there are hardly any taking new patients, and the ones that are seem to be fairly crappy. And it’s the same deal with appointments - two weeks from now, and they’ll make you wait even when you have an appointment. Too bad you’re sick now, and we booked three people for the same appointment time. So, to answer your OP, when I figure it out, I’ll let you know.
(Oh, about the goose egg on your leg - your doctor should have at least mentioned that with a soft tissue injury like that, you’re likely to get a big lump that won’t go away for years if you don’t have physio on it now. My husband took a baseball to the side of his forehead, and the lump is very slowly decreasing after about two years.)
When I moved here I asked my doc if he could help me find a new doc here. He said the best way to do this was to go to the local pharmacy and ask the pharmacist. He said that they interact with these guys all day and that they would have a good idea of who was good and who wasn’t.
He works at Ohio State, which has its downsides and,
I can’t remember his name.
My husband was seeing him for a while and really liked him. We switched to a more local doctor when we found one who he liked just as much (Ohio State is a 1-1.5 hour drive for us).
This is exactly what I did when my then-doctor put me on injectable insulin without doing a blood test. (I’m fat, not diabetic. I have no doubt that I will be diabetic one day, but not yet.)
I walked into the pharmacy, explained my situation to the people waiting for prescriptions, and asked if they liked their doctors. The pharmacist heard me and asked some questions. She told me not to use insulin without a getting a second opinion. I still use the doctor she recommended.
Do you have any friends or coworkers who are local and could recommend someone? When I was looking for a doctor, I got a list of the local GPs in my insurance network and sent them to my fiance’s mom, who’s a nurse. Unfortunately, the one she recommended was only accepting pregnant women as new patients, but her office personnel recommended another doctor who accepted me, and she seems totally awesome. I called her this Monday, and I got in for my first appointment on Tuesday.
I’ve always been pretty lucky, though, all but one of my doctors have been totally great. I recently found out, though, that the one nasty doctor I had was sued last year for keeping her Nigerian cousin as a slave in her basement. I wasn’t at all surprised. She was batshit crazy.
Go to doctors in newly developing upscale suburbs. These folks are generally developing a profitable practice, are used to dealing with customers who have high expectations for service and perhaps even make more money than they do. I have found this strategy to lead to kind, cooperative doctors and dentists. This is assuming you have good insurance.
If same day/next day appointments are a frequent need, you might want to find one that is affiliated with an urgent care. You might try back with Dr. # 2 and see if they have a relationship like this. Or, if your diabetes makes it best that someone treating you always have have your full medical records, discuss the importance to you of being able to get in on short notice for some things.
Getting the right doctor is crucial. We went through three before finding one who saved my SO’s life. If we had stayed with either of the first two, he would have died a few years ago. Now he is in perfect health.
Being Gay, I simply called the local Gay & Lesbian Center and asked if there were any good local doctors they could recommend. First time out, they hooked us up with the doctor who saved his life.
In your case, try calling a branch of Planned Parenthood for recommendations - I would imagine they know friendly, intelligent doctors in various fields who would be more to your liking.
I disagree that Doctor #2 was ok. Waiting 12 days or going to the ER is not a good choice. People get sick. You can’t plan that 12 days in advance. I only want a family doctor who has some time for same day or next day appointments. IMHO, anything else is silly.
Along with recommendations (the pharmacist is a good idea), I would call the office and ask about office policies like next day/same day appointments, being able to contact the physician with questions, and after hours coverage.
