Questions on How I Interview Our Potential Pediatrician?

M.,

I would look for a doctor willing to sit down and talk to you and your sons. I would see what is most important to you, like appointments, views on vaccines, general medicines, etc.

I actually have a female dr for my son and her associate is a man. My son sees both of them by my choice. I am slowly moving my son to the male so he is more comfortable as he gets older. Anyway.. his name is Dr. Charo. He is with Pediatric Solutions out of Arlington Heights I believe. I moved with them from their Northbrook office. What I like best about Dr. Charo is he talks to the kids like they are the patients and not the parents. They have great hours, never have had to wait more than 5 minutes for my appointment.

http://www.pediatricsolutions.net/default.htm

Hi M.,
When I was pregnant I was on bedrest so I had to conduct phone interviews with all the doc's that I was interested in. It was not ideal, but I ended up finding someone wonderful - and I got a really good idea of how he would respond if I had to call him after office hours.

I am a nurse, so I know how doctor's offices operate. I would ask how long the doctor's time slots are for various appointments. If he schedules patients in 10 minute slots for a routine physical exam, that is a sure sign that he will be running behind every time you go to the office. Also, get one of the nurses on the phone and introduce yourself and tell her you interested in their practice. See what she says and if she is warm and friendly. Even if she is busy she should take a few moments to talk to a potential patient.

Pick out one or two things that are most important to you and ask the doctor about those. Ask open ended questions and not just things he can answer with a simple "yes" or "no". Maybe ask him about somethings about what he feels are his best qualities as a physician and a husband/father/son...get an idea of what he is like outside of his practice.

Best of luck!! BTW, our doc is Dr. Minkus out of Evanston hospital. Love him to pieces!!
T.

Advise from a mother of a 17 year old.
We chose not to use a pediatrician, we chose a local Doctor of Osteopathic medicine. We live up in the Northern part of McHenry County and chose Dr. Purdy with Centegra Medicine.
But when we did look at pediatricians I asked things like the follwoing:
Years in practice. Schools attended. Did internship where. Would you be the doctor I would always see or would it be who ever is available. What is your veiws of immunizations. What is your views of weaning a baby. What is your views on the use of formula, how early do you believe milk can be started. Do you have set guidlines of starting solid food or do you look at each child individually. Cost of visits and what insurance does the doctor take. What is your billing policies or is payment expected at each visit. Do you work out of more than one hospital. Have you ever had a melpractice suit brought against you, if so what was the reason and wahat was the would come.
Good Luck...

M.~

Sigrid provided you with some great questions, so I won’t go back over them – but I would add in all the ‘personal’ things. Visit the office. When we first got to IL and had to find an office, we asked for an ‘interview’ appt. <generally free>; we walked in and looked around <is it clean? Does the staff treat the patients well, what is happening in the ‘background’, are they on time, does it seem organized? Was it ‘child’ friendly? Etc>, talked with folks in the waiting rooms <they can tell you A LOT of things> is the office open when YOU need it, can you call someone ‘afterhours’ or be seen? We interviewed and saw just over a half a dozen <some you eliminate just on the phone with the staff!!> We ended up with a peds office that is just over 30 minutes away. Our youngest daughters’ friends parents think this in ‘crazy’ to drive out there – but for US it was the best. The office we choose has everything in one location <Peds/internal meds/OBG/X-ray & Mammis/Blood labs etc> and the staff was and has always been the best. The best snip-it you can get is make sure the DOCTOR talks to the CHILD – he is the patient. Good Luck.