Part 2 of 7.....How to Find Dr. Right...

From: Helen Dynda (olddad66@runestone.net)
Thu Jul 3 20:38:00 2003


Part 2 of 7.....How to Find Dr. Right...by Aniruddha Malpani, MD

http://www.obgyn.net/displayarticle.asp?page=/women/articles/drright

The Clinic .....Is the clinic located in a good building?

.....Is public access easy? What about the car parking?

.....Is the clinic itself comfortable? Has the doctor bothered to provide the basic amenities you need (eg, drinking water, comfortable seating)?

.....What kind of reading material is kept in the waiting area? Old and torn magazines are a negative mark .

.....Patient educational literature and current issues of health magazines means the doctor respects your waiting time and uses it to educate you.

.....Is the office staff helpful? How do they answer the telephone? Waiting to see the doctor:

The commonest complaint patients have about their doctors is that they are made to wait for ages! It is only because patients put up with it that doctors get away with this unpardonable behavior. After all, no doctor will remain very busy if all his patients decide that they refuse to wait for him!

Some patients seem to believe that the longer they have to wait outside the doctor's clinic, the better he must be, since he has so many patients to see. This is simply not true! No matter how busy the doctor, he can always space appointments, so that you never have to wait for more than 30 minutes to see him. If he consistently makes you wait longer than this, it means he does not respect you enough to value your time! This doctor is implicitly saying,"I do not need you - I have more than enough patients to keep me very busy." Let his patients keep him busy, and find someone who respects you and your time more than he does.

Some doctors will deliberately overbook - the more patients they see, the better their income. While an occasional delay is unavoidable - since a medical emergency could require your doctor's immediate attention - if you are made to wait each time, something is seriously wrong with the doctor's attitude towards patients. For any delay, the office staff should have the courtesy to provide an explanation, and an alternative appointment.

As an example of efficient patient management, if the doctor's at the famous Mayo Clinic in the US make you wait for more than 30 minutes without an explanation, you can complain to the hospital manager who will rectify matters.

Timings:

Are these convenient to you?

What happens on weekends and after office hours? Is he available for emergencies?

Does he have a partner who shares his responsibilities?

Patient convenience:

Does your doctor try to minimize your visits - for example, are blood samples collected in the clinic to be forwarded to a reliable laboratory, or are you sent to the laboratory yourself?

Are basic services provided in the clinic itself? ( eg,, ECG in the case of a physician?)

X> TO: Part 3 of 7.....How to Find Dr. Right


Enter keywords:
Returns per screen: Require all keywords: