Weddingbee boards

I'm planning on interviewing a few pediatricians in the coming weeks.

Can anyone recommend some questions that I might want to ask?

Many thanks.

Some general questions we kept in mind were the following:

Ask the Doctor

How long have you been practicing?

Do you have any sub-specialties?

What are your hours? Do you offer evenings or weekends?

Do you offer same-day sick appointments? How far in advance do well appointments need to be scheduled?

What if my baby gets sick when the office is closed? Who covers in an emergency if you aren’t on call?

Who covers when you are gone?

Do you have separate sick and well waiting rooms (do they have separate entrances)?

Do you respond to questions by e-mail? Do you accept calls for routine and non-emergency questions? If I leave a message, how long does it usually take you to return the call?

Will your initial meeting with my baby be at the hospital or the first checkup? What is your schedule for well baby checkups?

Will you discuss my child’s general growth and issues like discipline and social development?

What are your views on… Bottle feeding? Circumcision? Parenting techniques? Getting babies to sleep? Alternative medicine? Antibiotics? Immunizations? Childhood obesity?

What hospitals do you work with?

Do you take my insurance? Is there an extra charge for…Advice calls during the day? Advice calls after hours? Medication refills? Filling out forms? Will any other fees apply?

What are your policies for insurance claims, lab policies, payments and billing?

What tests are handled in the office, and what is done elsewhere? Where?

Ask Yourself

Was the office clean?

Was the waiting room(s) kid-friendly, with toys and books?

How soon could the interview be scheduled? How long were you in the waiting room?

Was the office staff helpful? Were the nurses friendly?

Was the interview rushed? Did the doctor seem open to questions?

Did the communication feel natural? Was the doctor easy to understand?

Was parking convenient?

@Pelikila:  What a great list... thank you very much!

@smyley:  Perhaps it's a regional thing, but all of the pediatricians I'm considering offer an office interview at no cost.

@smyley:  The pediatricians we were interested in have particular days and times they allow for such a thing and none of the ones we spoke with charged for the interview.  Granted, you don't want to take a really long time since they are usually doing it gratis but you can get a general feel for the practice itself and the doctor(s).  We are really glad we did it since if we'd just gone with the practice our GP recommended (we love our GP but not so much her recommendation that time around), we wouldn't be as happy as we are with the pedi we chose. 

@Mrs. DG:  Thanks for posting.  I tried to find your earlier post but I couldn't.  If you have a moment to dig it up, I'd really appreciate it.  Many thanks.

Thanks!