OK, I promise that this will be the last of its type today!

[Guest guest]

Got some interesting information on selecting a physician and the

criteria one should use. Hope this helps some people here.

• Board Certification ñ Board certified doctors are required to

have extra training after

medical school to become specialists in a particular field of

medicine and are required to take

continuing education courses in order to maintain their board

certification status. Check with

the American Board of Medical Specialists (ABMS) to determine if a

specific physician you

are considering is board certified in a particular medical specialty.

• Experience ñ As mentioned above, research from the Harvard

Medical School strongly

suggests that how long a physician has been in practice (i.e.,

experience) does not necessarily

correlate with a high level of medical care. The most important

issue, therefore, is not how

long a doctor has been in practice but rather how much experience the

physician has in

treating your specific illness or medical condition. Some physicians

who have been in

practice for many decades may have only treated a small number of

patients with the specific

disorder, whereas, some younger physicians who have been in practice

only a few years may

have already treated hundreds of patients with the same disorder.

Here are some suggestions for helping you find out about a particular

physicianís experience

in treating your specific illness:

• Call the physicianís office and speak with a staff member such as

a nurse or

physicianís assistant. Ask them for information about how many

patients with

your specific medical condition the physician treats during the

course of a year.

Ask how many patients with this condition the physician is currently

treating.

You will have to call several different physiciansí offices in order

to have a basis

for comparing the numbers of patients.

• Find out if the physician has published any articles about the

condition in

reputable medical journals by doing an author search online. You can

conduct an

online author search using PubMed at http://www.nlm.nih.gov. Simply

click on

the ìPubMedî icon, select the ìauthorî field from the ìLimitsî

menu, enter the

physicianís name (last name followed by first initial), and then

click on the ìGoî

button. The author search will retrieve all articles published by the

particular

physician you are considering.

• Talk with your family physician and ask if he/she can provide you

with any

information about the particular physicianís experience in treating

patients with

your specific illness or condition.

• Contact disease organizations and support groups that specialize

in helping

patients with your specific disorder and ask if they can provide you

with any

information, including experience, about the physician you are

considering.

• Medical School Affiliation ñ Find out if the physician you are

considering also has a joint

faculty appointment at a medical school. In general, practicing

community physicians with a

joint academic appointment at a medical school are more likely to be

in contact with leading

medical experts and may be more up-to-date with the latest advances

in research and

• Hospital Affiliation ñ Find out about the hospitals that the

doctor uses. In the event that you

need to be treated at a hospital, is the hospital where the physician

has admitting privileges

nearby to your home or will you (and your family members) have to

travel a considerable

distance?

Find out if the hospital where the physician has admitting privileges

is accredited by the Joint

Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). You

can find

information about a specific hospitalís accreditation status by

searching the JCAHO web site

at http://www.jcaho.org/quality+check/index.htm. The JCAHO is an

independent, not-for-

profit organization that evaluates and accredits more than 15,000

health care organizations

and programs in the United States. To receive and maintain JCAHO

accreditation, a health

care organization must undergo an on-site survey by a JCAHO survey

team at least every

three years and meet specific standards and performance measurements

that affect the safety

and quality of patient care.

• Health Insurance Coverage ñ Find out if the physician is covered

by your health insurance

plan. If you belong to a managed care plan (HMO or PPO), you are

usually restricted to

using specific physicians who also belong to the ìPlanî. If you

decide to use a physician

who is ìoutside the networkî, you will likely have to pay ìout of

pocketî for the services

provided.

Anyse