6 Essential Tips That Can Help You Find a Quality Primary Care Doctor in NYC, And The Limitations You Should Know

With all the given resources available to us, and the tremendous availability of doctors all across NYC, it’s easy to assume that finding a good doctor may seem like a breeze

With the onset of technology and the readiness of smart phones, high speed internet connectivity, and free hot spot availability at the local library, Dunkin Donuts, or Starbucks, more people are able to connect with great resources. Out of the plethora of resources available in helping find the right doctor, lots of senior and retirees are using the World Wide Web, and connected with friends, family, and local community organizations that can assist in the process of helping select a good doctor.

As the journey in getting a quality physician seems like a piece of cake, that’s not always the case

Well, here’s some news you should know- Finding a quality physician who can tailor to your needs can actually turn out to be a much more complicated process than expected, especially if you are not computer savvy and require a specific accommodation for your health or cultural needs.

Utilizing your point of influences can help a lot, but only to a certain extent

Seeking help from your network of friends, family, and community …

Asking your friends, family or your community for a referral for a good physician can help. If you ask people in your online community, such as Facebook groups, or if you are a part of a  community group chat – you may be successful in getting lots of useful responses. Although this is a great start, this approach does not always guarantee that the physician referred will be the ideal candidate. Every person has a unique set of health and medial needs, and every doctor is different. Some people like attentive physicians, or physicians who can spend enough time with them to understand their needs and medical wants- and  the right type of chemistry between the patient and the physician may not always be established.

Asking your current provider for a Referral may help as well

Doctors usually have a network of physicians and specialist they work with, and an assistant who can help you check to see if the doctors they recommend are in network with your current insurance. This is definitely yet another way to recommended physician, but it does not mean that the physician referred will be ideal for you and the quality of care you seek. In some instances, good physicians and specialists can be referred by providers, but those providers may not be in your health plan’s insurance network.

Utilizing resources available on the World Wide Web can help in many ways

There are 7+ websites that can help you find good physicians based on their ratings. For instance, the following health websites are free to use and can help with your search:

• Google Business Listings
• Health Grades
• Web MD
• Vitals
• Yelp
• Open MD
• Zocdoc
• RateMDS

Finding the right physician that can attend to your specific medial needs using the website resources above, can help , but they can also be misleading in many ways.

A lot of times, these websites are hard to use for seniors, retirees, or people with disabling conditions who are not web savvy. Not all websites are ADA compliant, or have special plugins that can accommodate your specific needs. Also, some websites can show high ratings for one provider, while other websites can show a much lower rating.

Each website has their own criteria in rating providers, and the variance in these criteria can also be misleading

For instance, provider X has a 3 star rating by supposedly 20 people who claim to be the doctors patients, while on Zocdoc, the provider has a 5 star rating based on 5 reviews. To highlight another example, provider Y has 4.5  star rating based on 7 reviews on Health Grades, and 2.3 review star rating  on Google Reviews – So what will it be? This is how confusing the process cold be when trying to find  a provider based on star reviews on different websites, or in instances where your trying to research a recommended physician, or a physician of your choice.

Here are 6 guides that can actually help you find a quality physician

1. Find a provider you can trust and communicate well with, who you can re-establish your long term relationship with. In New York, you may find a doctor you like, but the doctor you want to see may actually be supplemented by a Nurse Practitioner or a “physician extender”. Certain cardiologists can serve as internal medicine providers and it’s important that you make sure you are seeking the right type of family practitioner, and that the provider is listed as a primary in your plan’s network.
2. Make sure your doctor has a successful track record and is board certified. Take enough time to research your doctor’s track record and make sure the doctor is free of any malpractice. You can use your links in the community to get help or advice about a certain doctor, use the World Wide Web to research recommended physicians, or ask family and friends to learn about their experience with the doctor.
3. When seeking a good doctor, check their qualifications and hospital affiliations. If you are currently attending a hospital, or have a hospital of choice, start with the hospital, and find a provider who is affiliated with that hospital.
4. Some More considerations: consider a doctors years of experience in the field, and if age is a big determining factor in your search, you can look in to that as well.
5. Seek local physicians in your community. Find a medical practitioner who is within the vicinity of where you live, and one who is in your network who is accepting new patients.
6. Doctors who can tailor to your cultural needs. For further considerations, you may look into the doctors who speaks your language, and can accommodate to your cultural needs and religious needs. If you are a senior or elderly individual, you may consider to seek doctors who specialize in Geriatric medicine as well.

Five limitations that can prevent you from finding the right care

Finding a quality physician does not come without limitations

1. After using the guides described above, you may discover a physician that can be ideal for you, but that does not come without certain limitations. Lots of good physicians who run busy practices may be limited, and may no longer be accepting new patients. Some very good physicians can no longer accept new patients due to their high demand and limited working hours.
2. Establishing a relationship with your doctor, re-establishing your relationship with a new physician takes time. Most people develop long term relationships with their providers, which helps a lot. For instance, if you need to see your doctor urgently, and the doctor has a good relationship with you, they can service you much quicker. In instances where you are traveling and need a prescription re-fill, doctors can use their discretion and may not require you to come in to get your re-fill.  Developing a good relationships with your primary care doctors and their staff can  that takes years to develop, and in most instances can increase the quality and efficiency of your care.
3. Unexpected average wait time to see a new physician. Even when finding another physician to attend to your needs, getting a visit with the physician can be one of the most inconvenient experience, especially if you need to see a physician as soon as possible. It takes an average of 39 days for new patients to get an appointment with a family physician and 50 days to see an internist, as referenced in an article by the Boston Globe.
4. Not all physicians can attend to someone who speaks another language. If your English is that that good, being serviced by a doctor who speaks your language, or has staff that can translate for clear and cohesive communication is essential. Not all providers have the ability to provide multi-lingual support in their practices.
5. Finding a doctor that can suite your religious and cultural needs takes time and good research. If you have a specific requirement, such as in finding a Vegan Doctor, Kosher Doctor, or even a doctor who understand your religious norms and limitations is like finding a needle in a haystack. Although New York City is known as the epicenter to all cultures and religions, the melting pot we live in only has a limited amount of these kinds of physicians, and they are extremely hard to find.

In Summary

Finding a great physician takes time, research, and the right amalgamation of resources . The resources offered by the Wide Wide Web, guides and limitations illuminated in this article can certainly help you make the right decision in finding the quality physician that would be the ideal candidate to serve your dedicated health and medical needs in New York City.