Oh no - my doctor is retiring - What do I do?

Posted by Merry, Alumni Mentor @merpreb, Jan 5, 2019

Hello- I hope that we all survived the holidays. I did knowing that before the end of the year my long time friend and pulmonologist was retiring and needed to find a new one. She was my first contact with the cancer field 21+ years ago. I Love her. She was available night and day for her patients.
She gave me five recommendations. I also asked my Thoracic Surgeon who use to work in my state. And now I have one.
There are a number of things that we need to be concerned with:
These are some of the things that I considered:

Hospital affiliation(s)
Office location(s)
Educational background
Specialty interests
Languages spoken
Years in practice
Gender
Types of insurance accepted
Review CV if available (often on affiliated hospital website).
Check out patient reviews (take them with a grain of salt in case they are skewed by an unfairly disgruntled patient).
Make sure they’re accepting new patients.

Has anyone else needed to find a new doctor and how did you make your decision? I realize that it's not that simple because of the differences in insurance companies. We can't always get who we want, and that's disheartening and scary.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Lung Health Support Group.

@walisky

Thank you for your prompt reply. When you've worked with a doctor for years, it's so hard when they retire and you try to establish a good and trusting relationship with another.

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@walisky- Very true! I hate that she has retired. It was all politics and not something that she wanted to do, which makes it even sadder. However I look forward to meeting my new team next month. He's rated very highly! Have you had this experience?

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In addition to all the great recommendations you listed, I check board certifications, how many years practicing and, if your state has it, verify licensing online and if there have been any malpractice lawsuits. Excellent discussion.

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@matthew33- A warm welcome. These are excellent add-ons to the list. Thank you for thinking more deeply than I did.

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