Curious - do your kids and you have a doctor who knows you?

[Cera]

We do now.  We moved a lot when the kids were small but now that we are more or less settled (within a 1 mile radius) I found a doctor that we will be able to travel to wherever we move in the area.  She knows the kids and I well enough that she will often just call in a prescription for minor issues (sinus infection on vacation, swimmers ear on a saturday) because she trusts that we know what our kids need in those cases.

[Elisabet1]

Yes. But he lives behind us and is a family doctor we have had for a long time. In between, (he moved out of state for a few years ago) we used a doctor whose children were home schooled. And you know how small the home school community is.

[applethyme]

Yes, because my son was born with many health issues.  At one time we were in the peds ofc every two weeks.  Today when we go for visits the staff is just amazed at how well he is doing.

[StephanieZ]

Yup, we all have doctors who know us. Primary care, allergy/asthma, and dermatology and dentist. All the ones who we see on a regular basis know us well, both from seeing us in the office regularly as well as around-town-social-circles. Our lawyer, builder, and CPA, too. I tend to choose doctors and other important professionals based on personal recommendations from OTHER doctors (or professionals), so they all know each other and then we stick with the ones we know, so they know us, too. I think it makes for better medicine and better service. I've had doctors give me their cells, personally intervene squeeze me in to booked days or to get me in with a different specialty, meet me at the ER to do plastics repair on a kid's face (twice!) instead of leaving her to the mercy of the ER doc, and take my calls (and prescribe meds) from out of state when we get sick traveling. I place a high value on personal relationships with professionals. We have a professional service business of our own (dh is a vet), so we also build relationships through providing excellent service in our own practice, and that helps for sure. We go beyond the norm in service (taking calls after hours, dh giving out his own cell, doing favors) in our business, so calling in favors for others is fairly comfortable, as we pay it forward many times over. 

 

BTW, I would never choose an HMO for this very reason. I control our insurance choice (used to be through choosing our work plan, now we've dropped work, so I chose an ACA plan), and I gladly pay a premium to know I can choose any doctor I wish. Yes, we can afford to do this now, but even when we were very poor in grad school, and were paying the premiums with student loans, we still always chose a plan that allowed us to choose our own doctors, and even then, before I had any "leverage" to reciprocate, we still chose docs based on personal recommendations and still managed good personal relationships. 

 

Even in an HMO, can't you request the same doctor for appointments? If so, then figure out who saw one kid last (assuming they were OK), and always request that doctor for future visits with all the kids. That's what I'd do, anyway.

[PuddleJumper1]

Yes! In fact our pediatrician just called me this morning because she wanted to know how my youngest did at a specialist appointment last week :)

 

All of our doctors know my family, make a point to keep up with family background and they connect the dots from one child to the next. We are immensely blessed in this area. I have a feeling that living in a small town is a big part of it. My children have been in the same pediatric clinic since birth. We haven't had the same doctor all those years (although he still is the lead) but there is always just one doctor in the clinic. Over time I guess we've had about 5 peds. The fact that my youngest has a rare chromosome syndrome and 12 doctors kind of makes us stand out as well  :001_rolleyes: I've been amazed at the children's clinic when someone I don't know comments to me on how big my youngest has gotten and how they remember him as an infant. They've watched my kids grow up. Our children's clinic and hospital is one major reason we still live where we do. 

 

Dh and I started with a new primary doctor about 2 years ago. By our third visit his staff were asking how our children were by name and noticed that I was growing my hair out. That truly impressed me. I personally have not had an adult office take that much interest in us.  

[OneStepAtATime]

I have found over the years that there are pros and cons to a doctor knowing you and you knowing a doctor well.  I like that my primary care doctor has known me for over 10 years and has caught things that I might not have.  She also was the one who correctly found my dad's cancer when no one else did.  It is nice to have a knowledgeable doctor that has known me and my family long term.

 

But my MIL and FIL have gone to the same doctor for decades.  He has made little effort, that I can see, to update his knowledge base.   He honestly is a truly terrible doctor.  I can't stand the man.  But because MIL and FIL have gone to him for so long they don't question his decisions.  And it has caused health issues.

[AimeeM]

Yes, they do. In our kiddos' pediatric practice, you see one doctor primarily; of course if you call and need to be seen immediately, you take whoever can get you in asap. <----- usually the kiddos end up seeing somebody they have seen before, though, as it's a relatively small-ish practice.

[TracyP]

Do those of you who know your doctors socially ever find it awkward? I like that our doctor knows us well in a professional setting, but I think I'd have a tough time having a potluck with somebody who knows so much about me. Rationally, I understand that physicians probably don't spend their free time thinking about their patients' intimate details, but I still think it would feel weird.

 

The first time I ran into my doc in a social setting I thought it felt strange, but now he is just like any other acquaintance. The "intimate details" stay in the clinic, and we just do the usual "how are the kids" small talk in social settings. I think it sounds weirder than it is.

[Erin]

Yes.  
I used to babysit our PA when she was little.  lol  (We're both 400 miles from our hometown.  Funny how life works)

 

Even without that, ours is the only clinic in the county (2000 residents).  We know all of the PAs/docs/nurses/etc for the simple fact that you know most people in a community this size.  

[Guest]

Yup.  I chose a family practitioner off a list because he was close to my house.  That was 25 years ago.  He met my son 20 minutes after the critter was born; he is now 18.  He's been our family doctor all the way through.  My son never had a pediatrician.

 

[Caclcoca]

Our pediatrician knows us well, and we love her. A lot of the staff knows us by name too. My oldest will be 13 next month, and we have been with the same practice since his birth.  We occasionally have to see the other docs for sick visits, but they always try to put you with your main dr.  My husband and I have the same general practice doc.  I really like her, but I thankfully only see her about once a year.  

[prairiewindmomma]

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[trulycrabby]

Yes, we have known our pediatrician for 14 years, our kids went to the same school and are approximately the same age, and were neighbors for ten years. I think it's easier to get to know your health care practitioners when you live in a smaller city; ours is only about 45,000 people, so life is a little less impersonal than when we lived in Atlanta.

[pehp]

Yes! We all go to the same doctor, a family doctor in our small town. She also homeschools her children. We luv her. We also see the same dentist--well, my husband still sees his childhood dentist, but the other 3/4 of us go to my childhood dentist.  

[VeganCupcake]

We see my very good friend, who is a PA in family practice. She knows us all very well. We have also seen some of the other providers in that same clinic. I like family practice for this reason--the whole family can go to the same clinic for most issues.

 

ETA: when I make appointments at the clinic we go to, I specifically ask if we can see one particular provider. (I also know her schedule since she is a good friend and I have occasionally watched her children during her work hours.) I did the same thing in my recent pregnancy--I always requested appointments with the same OB. That was really important to me. The OB I saw agreed to catch my babies unless he was out of town--I would not have to see the on-call doctor. It worked great.

[KrissiK]

Yes, we do. We always have, but until recently we were part of a larger group, but still had one doctor. I got fed up with her, though, after several misdiagnoses, so we switched to a wonderful doctor who is has her own practice. Her office hours aren't great, but I never have to wait for her, she sits down with me and listens to me. She's a wonderful gal.

[angela in ohio]

We have had the same family doctor for our entire family for the past 18 years. I found her when dd was an infant and I had been through several awful pediatricians the first week of  her life. She has been there after the birth of each child, she has met us at the hospital to help dh help me through a severe case of PPD, she has managed our care as various issues arose which required specialists, she has taken panicked phone calls after hours. We have followed her to a new office, and we kept her after we moved, though we now have to drive 20 minutes further to see her. She, our bank, and our insurance agent are about the only constants in our life. :)

[MyThreeSons]

Our family doctor used to be an Elder at our church. He was our small group leader for a number of years, he was our oldest son's assistant soccer coach, I have tutored his four daughters (but not his son) at one time or another at their house, his wife is a friend, his mother was a dear mentor when she lived here, etc. He knows our family. On the rare occasion when he's not available, we always ask for one of the other doctors in the group, who also used to attend our church, was our small group leader, was our middle son's baseball coach, whose wife and I share a love of reading, whose daughter I have tutored, etc. 

 

I've never felt awkward around either one. 

 

Before we moved here, the pediatrician our boys saw had been my doctor when I was a kid. The only awkward time with him was when my middle son was born, and he came into the room to do the well baby check up before I could go home. My Mom happened to be there, and the two of them fell into a "catching up over the last 10 years" mode, completely forgetting about me and the baby, LOL. 

[creekland]

No and it would never have occurred to me that it could happen as doctor visits were rare - and to strangers - when I grew up too.  One only went to them when something was wrong that couldn't be fixed at home.

 

In our local IRL circle of friends, there are a few nurses (though we've never been to places where they work, unless school, where I also work, counts for one of them), but no doctors.  It was the same way when we lived in RI, VA, and FL. 

 

I guess we're in the process of fixing that though.  Middle son is still gung ho about being on the pre-med track.  We tell him we'll be relying on him for our future medical advice.  He'll know our back history quite well!   ;)