Posted by Racer on July 15, 2005, at 16:32:29
In reply to Need some help here, posted by MidnightBlue on July 15, 2005, at 15:04:07
Hey! Something I can help with! Whoohoo!
The AMA has a website that tells where a doctor graduated from, and (I think) where he/she did residency. That's a good option for you, and you can search it by name and county. It won't tell you how good a doctor is, but at least you can weed out those who graduated from Joe's House of Mufflers and Medical School last month. The main address for the AMA is http://www.ama-assn.org Follow the links for consumers, for doctor-finder.
Your state licensing board probably has a similar site, though, that will tell you if the doctor's license is current, whether there are any public records on file about the doctor (a Bad Thing), and a few other bits of information that can help you. California's Medical Board also publishes a cute little listing of everyone who's being investigated or has been punished in some way in the current period, along with little notes about what the punishment is for. That's always an amusing read -- as long as your doctor ain't on it -- if you like that sort of thing. (Sadly, but also happily, there were more reprimands and suspensions for things like sloppy billing practices and physician's alcoholism than for incompetence. I'm sad that so many doctors have such trouble with alcohol, but relieved at how few were cited for gross incompetence.)
Beyond that, sometimes you can do a mini-telephone interview with pdocs, or find a litmus test question -- "when was the last time you prescribed an MAOI? Have you prescribed Florinef with it recently?" or something -- that might help you. You could do what I did finding my last PCP: went through the list of doctors on the plan and picked out those in the medical group I liked, who had admitting priveledges at the hospital I trusted; then picked out all the doctors who had offices in the same building as my opthalmologist -- because I knew where to park nearby; then narrowed it down to the two women amongst 'em; and chose the one whose name I liked better. Slightly better than closing my eyes and throwing a dart...
Hm... If you trust your PCP, I would suggest seeing if you can narrow the list a bit, then take the remaining names to him/her and ask for advice. Might help. Might not. Best I can come up with...
Hope that helps a little...
poster:Racer
thread:528110
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050713/msgs/528165.html