Once upon a time local doctors served several generations of a family, from births to final illnesses. But gone are the days when people stayed in one town their entire lives. Whether you are the one who is moving or your doctor is the one relocating, eventually most people will need to find a new physician. Finding the physician who fits your needs and personality will impact your future healthcare.
I would argue that, given the rigors of medical education, many physicians are competent. I suspect a few bad ones do get through. (Yes, the person who graduates at the bottom of the class still qualifies as a doctor.) Although most are competent, that doesn’t mean that all of them are a good fit for a given patient. We all come into a relationship with preconceived ideas of who the other person is. Sometimes we are correct, sometimes not. So how do we figure out if this new physician is right for us? What questions should we be asking?
I think it is important to start with what we should not be asking in this new relationship, just to get that on the table. Starting with certain questions will likely make the physician defensive or suspicious. In employment law, certain personal questions are considered illegal. To most people in normal conversations, these are routine topics of discussion and a great way to get to know someone, but questions in th ...
