How to Find a Doctor - Advice About Searching for the Best Doctors in Your State

Selecting an internal medicine doctor can be a tricky and daunting task. Whether you have switched your healthcare insurance provider, relocated to a new area, or simply wish to change your existing physician or see an internal medicine doctor for the first time, it is often difficult to know how to find a competent and reputable physician. There are many items to consider before setting foot in a doctor's office. Fortunately, there are numerous resources available for the healthcare consumer that provide the necessary information and guidance.

State Licensing Boards

If you wish to verify a physician's license, or research a doctor's career history, including any malpractice suits or disciplinary actions (all of which is public information), your state medical licensing board is an extremely valuable resource. For more information on state licensing boards, including links to your state's board of medicine and additional state-specific internal medicine information, click here.

Insurance Providers

If you have health insurance coverage, an important place to start your search for an internal medicine doctor is with your healthcare insurance provider. Your health insurance provider can direct you to the appropriate online or printed resources containing a comprehensive list of physicians in your area who are covered under your health insurance plan. Although some providers may grant limited coverage for visits to an out-of-network physician, to be most frugal, you should ideally select a doctor who is covered under your current health insurance plan. Thus, this can be a good place to start - with the list of doctors covered by your insurance plan.

Referrals/Word-of-mouth

One of the most valuable sources of information about local internal medicine physicians is through referrals or word-of-mouth. By talking to people who have been treated by a certain doctor, or speaking with others in the medical profession who have come into contact with him/her, you often can get a very good picture of the personality, reputation and competence of the physician. If you have recently moved, talk to friends and neighbors about which doctors they see, and whom they would recommend. Ask your previous physician if he has any colleagues in the area you are moving to. If you have a physician you respect in another field, such as your Ob-Gyn or your child's pediatrician, ask them to refer you to a great internal medicine doctor. Word-of-mouth can be an extremely valuable source of honest and helpful advice.

Doctor Locator Organizations

There are an abundance of groups who offer consumers assistance in finding a physician. Many of these are for-profit groups, who may charge you a fee for their service. These groups may also be paid by physicians who advertise with them, so be sure to check whether they adhere to certain criteria in selecting the physicians they have directed you to. If their is an organization whose judgment or reputation you trust, you may feel comfortable using their membership list as a starting point. This could be a local medical organization, or a national group such as the American Medical Association (AMA), whose members must comply with the AMA's code of medical ethics. The AMA provides an online searchable directory of their active members, DoctorFinder, which contains general information about nearly 700,000 United States physicians.

"Best Doctors" Lists

Certain groups publish lists of the best doctors in the U.S. or in a specific city, region, or state. You may want to search the internet, your local magazines or newspapers, or even bookstores for publications of "top doctors" lists. Be sure to check and consider the evaluation and selection process and talk to physicians about which lists they consider reputable prior to relying on a particular list to select a physician. If you are comfortable with the list's criteria and reputation, these lists can be an excellent reference for locating professional, competent physicians.

Other Things to Consider

In addition to the factors mentioned above, you may wish to consider the following things in selecting your internal medicine physician:

Area of subspecialty. According to the American College of Physicians, there are 13 subspecialties within Internal Medicine. Internists may choose to pursue training in one of these areas after their initial medical training, or they may remain concentrated on general internal medicine. If you are interested in seeing a physician who has a particular subspecialty relevant to your medical needs, this can be an important piece of information. Subspecialties include adolescent medicine, allergy and immunology, cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, geriatrics, hematology, infectious disease, nephrology, oncology, pulmonology, rheumatology and sports medicine.
Is the doctor currently accepting new patients? Oftentimes, you may become excited about a particular physician you have selected, only to learn that he or she is not currently accepting new patients. Be sure to inquire about this before getting your heart set on one particular doctor.
Age/retirement plans of the physician. Although this may not be an issue of concern for you, it can be important in certain situations. If you are looking for a physician to care for you and your family for the next 30 years, you may not feel comfortable selecting someone who is planning to retire in 6 months. On the other hand, some people are not comfortable seeing a physician who is particularly young. This is a matter of personal preference, but is something to keep in mind if it is an issue that matters to you. You may wish to find this out beforehand, rather than being surprised when you arrive for your doctor's appointment. Similarly, if gender is a concern for you (e.g. if you are a woman who would feel more comfortable seeing a female physician), be sure to take that into consideration as well.