Doctor Woes Again...

My fellow inflammatory bowel disease people, you all can relate that we have been through a handful of doctors. I am not just talking about our gastroenterologist, but our family doctor as well. I have an interesting story about finding a new doctor and it happened recently.

Doctors in different locations

My gastroenterologist is located down at the University of Pennsylvania. The Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine is one of the best hospitals for inflammatory bowel disease. I never miss an appointment, because if I do, I’ll never be able to reschedule. My primary doctor is not affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. He has admitting rights at another hospital. So here comes the dilemma. When I have an abdominal issue, I should be going to the University of Pennsylvania. If I am having an issue with dehydration, or kidney stones, or anything else that isn’t a problem with my gut, I would go to Abington Hospital. My problem is that my University of Pennsylvania doctor always wants me transferred to his hospital. I hope you are following me so far, I know this is confusing.

The difficulties of finding a new doctor

So this past week, I decided to try to move my primary doctor to the University of Pennsylvania, but I did not succeed. I contacted a few of their satellite campuses out in the suburbs to see if they had doctors that were seeing new patients. I was able to find one and made an appointment for late in January. I should have done my research better because this doctor does not have any admitting rights. That would mean that if I was in the University of Pennsylvania, he would not see me in terms of “hospital rounds.” So I went ahead and canceled my appointment.

Going forward, I have an appointment with my primary doctor this week. I am going to go to the appointment, no questions asked. I will see my gastroenterologist next month. At that time, I am going to ask him to recommend an internist that he would like me to see that is Penn affiliated.  Then I will take it from there.

Doctors in the same network

I think it is very important to have all of your doctors (specialists and internists) in the same network or hospital. It makes it easier when you have to get lab work done for example. All the doctors would be able to pull up the labs from their computer without having them to be transferred. Also if you have to go to to the hospital, it is just one that they all can come and see you at.

For me, I didn’t do my research as carefully as I should have. As a result, I had to cancel my appointment with my new internist. I have to start from scratch again. Here is what should have really happened:

I should have requested an internist in the same network as my gastro doctor when I first started at Penn six years ago. But I didn’t have my ducks in order. Well, you live and learn... Right?  Fellow IBD people, what suggestions do you have for IBD patients finding a new family doctor? Thank you in advance!