How to Choose a Doctor - 5 Important Tips

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A doctor available for your medical needs is a very important friend to have. However, how do you choose the doctor to whom you will run to for help?

Here are some important things that you should consider in choosing a doctor to whom you will entrust your health to.

Ask Your Friends

Choosing a new doctor can be a challenge, but friend referrals are a good place to start. The Department of Health suggested asking your friends if they have a doctor that they like and would recommend.

If you are looking for a new doctor because your current doctor is retiring, ask him or her for referrals as well.

Check Your Insurance

Call your insurance company to ask for a list of local doctors who take your insurance plan. In case you don't have insurance, prepare to pay on your own.

Doctor's Expertise

You'll need to know a doctor's expertise before you choose him or her as a primary care physician, a Blue Cross blog said. There are three types of focuses that doctors have:

1. Family Practice - these doctors are able to treat patients of all ages, including newborns to the elderly. They can treat a wide range of infections and ailments, including some of those you'll need specialists for such as women's needs and sports injuries.
2. Internal Medicine - they focus on adults, specializing in prevention, diagnosis and management of diseases and chronic conditions.
3. General Practice - like family practice doctors, they can treat patients of all ages. Added to this category are doctors that practice a type of alternative medicine focusing on the musculoskeletal system.

Doctor's Traits

Sure, the doctor is qualified and is supported by your insurance (if you have), but his or her traits are also important as he/she will be personally taking care of your (or your family), says Women's Health. As such, you also need to check if he/she:

- takes time to listen, diagnose, and prescribe the best treatment;
- is well rested, as doctors who are not well-rested might not give you the best care due to a clouded judgment;
- updated on the latest research and is constantly learning;
- doesn't judge or dismiss your concerns; and
- keeps everything professional. He/she is your doctor, and you're his/her patient. Period.

Doctor's Staff

Now that you've got the doctor rounded up, check his/her staff.

“People should expect quality in their doctor and the system in which the physician practices,” Lois Margaret Nora, M.D., J.D., and president and CEO of the American Board of Medical Specialties, told Consumer Reports.