Posted by Bill L on March 30, 2001, at 10:08:46
In reply to Re: Bad doctors (referrals) » Bill L, posted by MarkinBoston on March 29, 2001, at 17:00:38
I agree that pharmacists are usually very helpful. A nurse would be ideal if you know one since she can be candid about who is good or bad. The way that I found the names of senior docs was I went to the web site of a teaching hospital near me and looked at the psychiatry page to get names. Then I went to the AMA find a doctor site and plugged in some of the names from the hospital to see what year they graduated medical school. Then I called a couple of them directly and some were available and others referred me to someone else. All 3 of them that I called returned my call. I got a good idea of how comfortable I felt with each just by chatting for a couple of minutes.
> I've had little success calling Boston teaching hospitals for referrals of endocrinologists specializing in mens' health. The referral line is often operated by a non-medical person working off a list of specialties, and sometimes doctors will list specific areas of interest. So, I've gotten names and numbers that were useless. The same information I found on the hospital web site and I knew what the subspecialties were about more than the call taker.
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> If at all possible, getting a name from a senior doctor well tied in to networking with peers is a better bet. You just have to get 1-2 minutes of access to that doc.
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> Another thing I have done is ask pharmicists. They surely know the bad docs who can't write a script correctly and waste their time, making them call the doc for clarification. They remember the ones that write contraindicated meds based on bad interactions or patient conditions. Pharmicists don't have the attitude and arn't competing for patients, so I like them as a resource. Find a time when they arn't busy and have time to talk.
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> Hospital nurses know who the good docs are too. Ones in their 30's are best to ask - experienced enough, and not burned out yet.
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> My experiences with teaching hospital docs is that it takes months to get an appointment, they have the largest egos, and are the least willing to try new things.
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> > My advise is to call a teaching hospital and ask for a referral. That should not be any problem in Atlanta. Doesn't Emory have a medical school and hospital? If not, I'm sure there are others. I think that the teaching hospital docs keep up with things and see a high volume of patients which is important. Of course unfortunately there is still no guarantee that the doc will not be obnoxious.
> >
> > If you want to switch docs, you should call for a referral right away since you might have to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment.
poster:Bill L
thread:57824
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010327/msgs/58055.html