@suerc When I first had problems with confusion, that turned out to be HE from non-alcoholic cirrhosis, my PCP (a family practice doctor) called me and said she thought I had Alzheimer's, after just one confusion episode! After conferring with two other doctors who basically were astonished by that, I went out to find a new doctor. I was told by those doctors and a doctor who is a close friend, that as you get older you should be seeing a doctor of internal medicine, not a family practice doctor. Internists are generally better diagnosticians. Granted, that is not always true, and there are some family practice doctors who are very good, but generally, family practice doctors are exactly that -- great doctors for younger people with children and they want one doctor for the whole family. As we age our problems tend to be different.
To find my new doctor I asked for recommendations from friends and ran them by a couple of other doctors whom I see. Sometimes recommendations from friends work out, sometimes not. If that person has not had anything beyond very simple problems they are recommending the doctor based on personality. I also check the rating sites but I do not consider them to be valid unless there are a fairly decent number of reviews from patients. Otherwise, you are relying on the good or bad experience of one or two people.
JK