At my last pre-natal appointment, I was told by one of my mid-wives that I had to begin my search for a pediatrician for my daughter. She went on and on about how I need to ask around to see where other parents take their children, then I have to pick a couple so I can interview them, and finally decide on one so they can fill-out some paper work about seeing my baby the first week she was born. Throughout her chatter, I began thinking "
what in the world is she talking about, can't I just have her see my family doctor?". Apparently, that was not the suitable option. So, I began my journey to finding a pediatrician for my daughter...
I started where anyone who is addicted to the internet would start, I posted a status update on my Facebook page asking if anyone had any recommendations for a pediatrician near me, lol. After two days with that status I got some leads :) Then I did what a smart person would do and I went to my health insurance website to look for providers in my area who were board certified. After getting sidetracked from other topics/web pages, I finally picked three pediatricians. I called all three offices and I was able to schedule to meet with two pediatricians the next day, free of charge. I say "free of charge" cause some offices charge you to meet with them which I found out was the case with one of the pediatricians on my list, so I decided it wasn't worth it. They were going to charge me $40 and reimburse me if I chose them,
no, thank you!
I suggest if your looking for a pediatrician that you ask around and then look up your approved providers so you aren't wasting your time or theirs. Also, there are a lot of good interview sheets online for questions you may want to ask the pediatrician who you are interviewing. I used a couple of those sheets to customize my own interview questions. The next day, I went on my interviewing journey.
The first person I interviewed had his practice near my home (about 10 min. away). I loved that it was a convenient location near me so that if an emergency came up I could get there soon. They had two separate waiting rooms (one for sick and another for well visits) which is important to me. It seemed kid-friendly and the interview went great, since we were on the same page on a lot of the topics I wanted to cover (i.e. breastfeeding, vaccinations, co-sleeping, etc.). The only negative thing I could think of was that the pediatrician was older than I would have liked and the office seemed boring. I really liked that one of the nurses is a lactation consultant and as the doctor put it "can get milk from a stone", which is really big for me since I plan on nursing.
The second person I interviewed had his practice about 20 min. away from my home and on a busy intersection (which made it hard to get to his office). As soon as I entered the office, I was greeted by two dogs, eys you read it right, two dogs. Apparently, the dogs are there everyday. Don't get me wrong I love dogs but I don't think they belong in the doctor's office. The office was overstimulating as there was not one bare wall in the place, very colorful/murals. They did not have two separate waiting rooms and the wait to see the doctor was a little longer than I would have liked. The interview went fine but I wasn't really comfortable. Although, the said they were supportive with me nursing, they made sure to send me home with formula coupons.
In a nutshell, I chose the first pediatrician and hopefully it will be a good fit. For those of you who have had kids, how did you choose your child's doctor? For those of you, who don't have kids, do you think you will interview doctors when that time comes or will you just chose the first one recommended?
