How can parents choose a pediatrician?

Описание: NURSE DANI: Let’s say that I’m pregnant, I’m in the end of the 2nd trimester / beginning of the 3rd, and now I’m starting to realize that my baby needs someone to take care of them after they’re born. How do I go about picking a pediatrician?

DR. AUSTIN BOWLES: So it’s an important decision. We want parents to have a doctor that they feel comfortable asking questions, especially a new mom that’s going to have a lot of questions that maybe she feels silly about or that she should know. We want them to have a pediatrician they feel comfortable with. And picking a pediatrician is a matter of convenience, so someone that’s nearby that you’re going to be able to go see—

(ND: You don’t have to drive 30 miles to get to them.)

AB: —when you have an unexpected call from school or daycare that says baby has a fever, needs to go home, maybe you should take them to a doctor, you don’t want to have to drive too far to find your pediatrician. Personality is hard to know, ahead of time, whether that’s going to be someone that’s going to work for you or not. Looking into location, who’s covered by your insurance, and then word of mouth, reviews, friends, things like that are good resources to find out. A lot of parents don’t get that far into picking a pediatrician. There’s a lot of things to worry about when an expecting mom is expecting. You’ve got to get a nursery ready, you’ve got to get a diaper bag, you’ve got to get a baby shower, a lot of things to get done, and not always do they pick a pediatrician beforehand. At the hospital, they’ll ask who your pediatrician is, who you’ve selected, and if you say “I don’t know yet”, there is a system for that, so you’ll have a pediatrician assigned to you there in the hospital. And that’s not a permanent decision. Those of us that help take care of those patients know that maybe you’re from further away than their clinic is or that maybe it’s not going to be a good fit. A lot of times it is, and parents think “Oh good. We’ve met this one. He or she seems really nice”—

(ND: It’s a natural introduction.)

AB: —and they’ll say “Oh, now we’ve picked our pediatrician.” But it’s not something that we know or we think that you’re committed to, and so we’re happy to point you in the direction of other pediatricians that are maybe closer to your area or to let you continue looking after you’re done at the hospital.

ND: So let’s say that I’ve decided beforehand that I want you to take care of my baby after they’re born. Do I need to contact you ahead of time to let you know? Or how do you find out that I’d like you to take care of my baby?

AB: So one of the options for choosing a pediatrician is to have an interview with them, or a consultation, so you can meet them beforehand. Most pediatricians offer a Meet-and-Greet that you can see them a month or two before you’re expecting and just see if that’s “Oh, this does seem like a good fit” and you can shop around for a pediatrician.

ND: Actually visit the office, get to know the staff, meet the provider.

AB: And know what it’s like to park there, what it’s like to find the area, does it look kid-friendly? That kind of stuff. And that’s one way that the pediatrician can know that they can plan on seeing you in a few months or whenever your due date is. That being said, maybe you are shopping around and they don’t know that that’s the final decision that you’ve made. When you check into the hospital to have the baby, they’ll ask who your pediatrician is. If you tell them “Dr. Bowles (or Dr. so-and-so) is the one that we’ve selected for our pediatrician”, the hospital and the nurses know to put that down in the chart when the baby is born or if there’s issues that they need the pediatrician to be aware of beforehand, they’ll contact that pediatrician. One of the issues that does come up is whether that pediatrician has privileges at the hospital that you’re delivering at, and so we have that happen sometimes down at my hospital where someone has an OB that delivers at Provo, but they actually live in Heber where they have a pediatrician that they’ve selected. And in those cases, that doctor in Heber isn’t going to be able to come 30-45 minutes away to round on that baby, or to see that baby in the hospital, and so that is, again, another place where an assigned pediatrician (on a rotating calendar of who takes those babies) is happy to fill in and help take care of the baby while they’re in the hospital and then pass on the baton when it’s time for a family to go back to Heber or wherever it is.

ND: You can just make your follow-up appointment with the pediatrician you normally see outside of the hospital.

AB: Yes.