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The new doctor hunt

I have been dreading the new doctor hunt the way you might dread being strung up by your fingernails – I just haven’t wanted to do it and so have been putting it off. But I can’t put it off. My insurance has changed and my beloved doctors are no longer on my plan. This means going on a new doctor hunt and starting all over with someone new.

I know it’s wise to start to establish a rapport with someone now, while I’m having few problems, so that when things act up we have an established working relationship. Hopefully, by then I will have built up some credibility so that they don’t think I’m a nut when things seem a bit weird.

But, like a spoiled child – I don’t wannaaaaa……

Yesterday I finally made an appointment. Since KUMed isn’t on my insurance plan, I decided the next best hospital for me was probably St. Luke's – they’ve got a good-sized hospital only five miles from my office and another larger hospital campus downtown.

After talking to Dr. Seward and Donna, I decided this time around I probably should go for an internal medicine doc as the “team captain” and my primary guy rather than family medicine. Don’t get me wrong, my experiences at family medicine at KU (with the exception of one very junior doc early on) were excellent. That’s why I don’t wan to leave.

I pulled up a list of all the internal medicine docs with privileges at St. Luke’s South. I looked at how long they’d practiced medicine and where they went to school. I really wish the site had given a tad more information about them (like the KU site does) such as what their specific interests are, whether they’ve got a research focus, where they’ve been published or even a little indicator of their personality like a hobby or something.

The scant information had me feeling a bit lost. I called the nurse help line, explained HPS and my “hunt” and the very helpful nurse gave me three names that she suggested. One was on my short list from my own search – so that’s who I chose to make an appointment with. We’ll see how it goes.

I think my blood pressure went up just making the appointment. Will this guy the sort of collaborative listener I like, or will he be the in and out type that you can’t pin down for five seconds?

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