The search for a pediatrician is wrapping up (OK, so I'm lying a little... but the search is on!). We had an appointment with one of our midwives yesterday, and among a number of different things we discussed, she asked if we had decided on a pediatrician yet. We sort of looked at her, looked at each other, then looked back at her, and one of us quietly said something like "...yeah, we've been working on that..." She then said something like "You do realize that it's May in three days, and this baby is going to be here very soon. This baby will need a doctor before you can leave the hospital. Time to get on this..." Yikes!
Honestly, we have been talking about this quite a bit, we just hadn't actually made any phone calls yet. So, we got home from our appointment, compared notes and looked at some of the information the nice people at the midwife center gave us, and decided on three practices to call. We thought we'd ask if they were accepting new patients, ask if they would be willing to meet with us before we decided on anyone, and if all went according to plan, one would stand out as our top choice - all within the next 5 weeks.
As it turns out, our plan was a good one - mostly. We called one practice affiliated with the hospital where baby will be born, and they had someone for us. This was the option most similar to Brittany's pediatrician when she was a kid. We are scheduled for a "meet and greet" appointment in two weeks so we can find out a little more about the doc and the practice there.
We also have an appointment at the other nearby (much larger) hospital's pediatric practice - they had three doctors accepting new patients, and the nice woman on the phone asked if I preferred one over the others. I explained that this was the purpose of my call - to find a doctor since I don't already know one. She giggled and gave me the name of the one with the next available "meet and greet" appointment, three weeks away.
Finally, we the third choice was a small, single doctor private practice sort of setup. This option was more like my experience as a kid - when I was really young - until that practice grew quite a bit. We thought it would be good to see the contrast from the other two options. But, when I called, the conversation went like this:
-Receptionist: Hello, doctor's office...
-Me: Hi, I'm wondering if you are accepting new patients. My wife and I are expecting a baby in June and are looking for a pediatrician.
-Receptionist: Um... aahh... Are you new to the area?
-Me: No, just new to being a dad.
-Receptionist: Well, who is your doctor?
-Me: Excuse me? My doctor? I have a primary care physician up the road at XYZ Practice. What? Why?
-Receptionist: Um, maybe you should go there. [Loud noises in background; children screaming; pots and pans banging] We are sort of a family practice here. I mean, we do babies, but we have so many patients we can't really fit in the people we already have even when they are sick, and I would hate to add more to that. You'll just be sitting in our waiting room for a long time.
-Me: OK, that's fine. That's why I asked if you were taking new patients. [thinking to myself: "she could have opened with that" or "I didn't want to come in today"]
-Receptionist: Well, like I said, we do babies, but I'm not sure what to tell you...
-Me: OK. [thinking to myself, again: "just tell me you aren't taking new patients... what is happening here?!?"] Really, it's fine. Thank you for the information and for your time.
-Receptionist: Yes, alright. I might try going someplace else. Is there anything else I can do for you today?
-Me: [inside my head: "anything else? what did you do for me except make me confused? did I dial the right number?"] No, that's all. Thanks very much. Bye.
And, that helped narrow down our search. Now we know exactly what we aren't looking for. Thank you small country doctor office helper - you have been very helpful.
We'll report back in two or three weeks on if we found the right doctor! I think we have two really good options to choose from, and we're optimistic that either will be great.
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