May 26th, 2010 Picking Your Non-Primary Primary Doctor

Like most American’s, I am a proud member of an HMO. As someone who can afford medical insurance, but can’t afford the “best” that an PPO has to offer, I find myself having to constantly roll with the punches and make some rather uninformed decisions during the course of my medical day. While I’m sounding a bit dramatic, I bring this up because I was faced with a rather interesting question the other day in regards to my medical well-being: who do I want to be my primary care doctor?

HMO’s are big fans of having you pick a primary care doctor based upon nothing more than a name and a picture of them smiling in one of those women’s or men’s lab coats. I remember on the first day I got approved they wanted me to pick a primary care doctor sight unseen. They said that you didn’t have to see this person when you went in but everyone had to have a primary doctor. I thought to myself how ridiculous this sounded as it seemed like they just needed you to pick someone for bookkeeping purposes (I was right by the way, it’s mostly for bookkeeping purposes.

I can say, two years after joining the HMO, I have seen my primary care physician twice, both times for physicals. The other times I’ve gone in have been for after hours care thanks to late night coughing attacks or fevers. I remember as a kid having a primary doctor I saw at all times. This doctor knew me like the back of her hand and could remember things without looking at my chart.

At this HMO my medical record seems to be king. The first thing a doctor will do when they see me is log onto the internet in-room and look into my medical record. I don’t mind this terribly because this means that I am getting the right diagnosis and having interchangeable doctors who know what they are doing isn’t the worst thing in the world, but I do miss having someone who you primarily see for your illnesses. This is especially true for my children. They have primary care doctors but I can rarely get last minute appointments with them (trust me, appointments with children are always last moment).

So yeah, I know that this is the way the world works right now. As technology and corporations grow we sacrifice a personal touch for convenience. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but I do certainly miss having trusted doctors whose name I know before hand.

Author Kim Green knows that men’s lab coats can only tell you so much about your doctor.