Choosing a Pediatrician

I am 31 weeks pregnant and at my last check-up, my OB told me that I need to choose a pediatrician ASAP. I have read and she also suggested that I interview the pediatrician before committing to one. The problem is that I am on bed rest and will be until I deliver. I live in Houston, Texas (about 5 inutes from the medical center) and my doctor told me that above all else, make sure that the pediatrician sends his patients to Texas Children's Hospital should something go wrong. My questions:

1. Does anyone here live in Houston and have a pediatrician that they love and that uses Texas Children's Hospital?
2. What should I ask during the interview. I feel really awkward about this.


Moderator: Can you also post this in the First Year forum? Thank you!

 

QUOTE(serranoboys @ May 14 2007, 02:18 PM) [snapback]254730[/snapback]
I am 31 weeks pregnant and at my last check-up, my OB told me that I need to choose a pediatrician ASAP. I have read and she also suggested that I interview the pediatrician before committing to one. The problem is that I am on bed rest and will be until I deliver. I live in Houston, Texas (about 5 inutes from the medical center) and my doctor told me that above all else, make sure that the pediatrician sends his patients to Texas Children's Hospital should something go wrong. My questions:

1. Does anyone here live in Houston and have a pediatrician that they love and that uses Texas Children's Hospital?
2. What should I ask during the interview. I feel really awkward about this.
Moderator: Can you also post this in the First Year forum? Thank you!



I used to live in Houston Texas, actually both my kids were born there. I did have them at a birthing center, not a hospital..... however I did have the same pediatrician for both of them and he works with Texas Children's Hospital. His name is Dr. Nandwani, the website to his office is http://www.texaschildrenspediatrics.org/lo...pediatrics.aspx and he was just a really great doctor for both of my kids....very caring and amazing with babies/kids, did rush to get to the next person in line kinda doc, took his time to explain things and treat whatever it was that needed to be treated. I never did the interview thing, which I should have because b4 him I went to about 3 uncaring pediatricians and then was very grateful to find Dr. Nandwani. Hope this helps!

Netty

 

I meant to say he "didn't rush" to the next in line lol sorry about that

Netty

 

I don't have any names for you but you can look at the Board of Pediatrics website to see who is board certified as a pediatrician.
Some questions that you might want to ask:
If you are planning on breastfeeding you might considering asking their opinion about BF and also how their support lacating women... do they have a lacation consultant? experienced nurses?
Do they have after hours or how do they handle sick, emergent patients?
Do they see the babies before they leave the hospital?
How do they handle call and weekends?
Do they allow parents to e-mail them with questions?
Do they take your insurance?
Which hospital do you typically admit children to and do you follow them once they are admitted?
I hope that it works out for you to do a phone interview at least. We ended up doing ours while the girls were in the NICU.. it worked out just fine. Best of luck

 

QUOTE(serranoboys @ May 14 2007, 05:41 PM) [snapback]255064[/snapback]
I am 31 weeks pregnant and at my last check-up, my OB told me that I need to choose a pediatrician ASAP. I have read and she also suggested that I interview the pediatrician before committing to one. The problem is that I am on bed rest and will be until I deliver. I live in Houston, Texas (about 5 inutes from the medical center) and my doctor told me that above all else, make sure that the pediatrician sends his patients to Texas Children's Hospital should something go wrong. My questions:

1. Does anyone here live in Houston and have a pediatrician that they love and that uses Texas Children's Hospital?
2. What should I ask during the interview. I feel really awkward about this.


I would think that whatever medical plan you're on would list pediatricians and indicate in there which hospitals they work out of. If you live that close to the Medical Center I would think there's a decent chance most of the pediatricians in your area would also work out of TCH.

Also, what does your OB-GYN say in terms of who they recommend? My wife's OB-GYN for our twins had about 3 or 4 pediatricians in our area she recommended. We spoke to two by phone and were more comfortable with one and that's who we chose. He works out of TCH although we've never had to go there.

Our questions for him were all twin-related. Do they do anything unique for young twins as compared to singletons? How many sets of twins are in their current patient list? I don't think we had too many questions for him--it was more a case of just seeing his bedside manner, which is strong around kids (less-so around parents). I guess you could also ask about his fellow office's doctors as most likely you'll only see him occasionally and work with the other doctors in the office just as much. You'll learn to realize that some doctors just aren't that friendly so when we're making appointments and have a choice among doctors, we'll wait for the appointment with the doctors we prefer having the boys around.

 

QUOTE(serranoboys @ May 14 2007, 10:41 PM) [snapback]255064[/snapback]
I am 31 weeks pregnant and at my last check-up, my OB told me that I need to choose a pediatrician ASAP. I have read and she also suggested that I interview the pediatrician before committing to one. The problem is that I am on bed rest and will be until I deliver. I live in Houston, Texas (about 5 inutes from the medical center) and my doctor told me that above all else, make sure that the pediatrician sends his patients to Texas Children's Hospital should something go wrong. My questions:

1. Does anyone here live in Houston and have a pediatrician that they love and that uses Texas Children's Hospital?
2. What should I ask during the interview. I feel really awkward about this.


My daughter had to choose a pedi while on bedrest. We asked friends and family who had little ones and they made a variety of suggestions. They gave the pros and cons of each of their pedi's so my daughter began to call offices. One office did not return her call for five days after they knew what she wanted and then it was an office person - they were immediately removed from our list. A friend with twins recommended a certain pedi and he himself called back that same day. My daughter was also concerned with office hours and days since both she and her husband work - they looked for a large group that staffed at least one doctor until 9 each evening for after hour visits - a group that also provided care on Saturday's and emergency in office care on Sunday. She spoke to several doctors by phone and ultimately she chose the physician that actually called her back himself. Several nurses from other practices called within a reasonable time, but since he made the personal effort she chose him. If after the boys were born we had not been satisfied, we would not have hesitated to begin the search anew for a pedi but he has been wonderful. I recommend you talk to friends with children or even with expectant mothers in your OB office during your visits. Ask them who they use and if and why they like them - then make the calls yourself. Think about things that are important to you - proximity to home, office hours, returning calls - you can get a good idea from calling around.

 

HI,

We intereviewed to find our peditrician and it was the best thing for us! Don't feel awkward about it at all. Bottom line, you'll be spending alot of time talking to and visiting the dr office in the first year, so you gotta like your doctor. I'd ask yoru friends with kids who they use and what they think of their dr. that's how I got a small list to interview. If a Dr is unwilling to do an interview (phone or in person) then you DON"T want that Dr. Here's the things that we tried to get a sense of before we signed on:

1) Personality fit (most important) -- does the Dr seem like he/she likes to discuss options, treatments, diagnoses -- with the parent or are they more authoritarian? - figure out what you want and pick one that most fits the style of person you want.
2) Ease in getting referrals -- if you want to see a specialist, will you be able to ---
3) Hours of the office, on call, etc.
4) How many layers between you and the doctor on phone calls --- can you talk to the doctor if you need to? my pedi's office has a nurse's line but if they can't answer the question, then the Dr calls back in the evening to discuss your issue.
5) # of pedis in the practice -- is there a dr who can see you if your dr is unavailable. Ease of getting a sick visit
6) do they segregate well and sick visits? (ours does morning well visits and afternoon sick visits)
7) what is the call process after hours? how do you talk to the pedi at night or on the weekend?
8) Office staff is personable? easy to work with?
9) breastfeeding friendly? (this was important to us)
10) willingness to let us define the vaccination schedule instead of making us stick to the standard model.
11) proximity to our house -- If I had a vomiting child, I wanted to make sure that I didn't have to drive far with them in the car.


There are more, but these were the most important. I actually chose a pedi who did not practice at the hospital that I delivered at. This was a sacrifice, but she was so good, I didn't care and I haven't been sorry at all.

Good luck with everything, you've only got a few weeks left -- keep those babies in as long as you can!!

Cheers

Teri D

 

I had a whole list of questions to ask, but now I can't find it, darn it. But, off the top of my head --

-- Find out if the pediatrician is a parent him/herself. Our first one wasn't, and it made a big difference.

-- Ask what parenting books they recommend. You'll be able to gauge by those what sort of "philosophy" the doctor touts, for example, attachment parenting vs. not. If you have strong feelings about this, then you'll want a pediatrician that believes similarly.

-- Ask about their vaccination schedule, and find out how flexible they'll be with it, if it's important to you. (I'm not anti-vaccine, but we plan to delay starting vaccs until 6 months, and then do one at a time instead of the usual combos.)

-- If you call after hours, what happens? Can you get an advice nurse in the middle of the night? How long until you get a call-back during the day, if you just call with a question?

 

HI,

We intereviewed to find our peditrician and it was the best thing for us! Don't feel awkward about it at all. Bottom line, you'll be spending alot of time talking to and visiting the dr office in the first year, so you gotta like your doctor. I'd ask yoru friends with kids who they use and what they think of their dr. that's how I got a small list to interview. If a Dr is unwilling to do an interview (phone or in person) then you DON"T want that Dr. Here's the things that we tried to get a sense of before we signed on:

1) Personality fit (most important) -- does the Dr seem like he/she likes to discuss options, treatments, diagnoses -- with the parent or are they more authoritarian? - figure out what you want and pick one that most fits the style of person you want.
2) Ease in getting referrals -- if you want to see a specialist, will you be able to ---
3) Hours of the office, on call, etc.
4) How many layers between you and the doctor on phone calls --- can you talk to the doctor if you need to? my pedi's office has a nurse's line but if they can't answer the question, then the Dr calls back in the evening to discuss your issue.
5) # of pedis in the practice -- is there a dr who can see you if your dr is unavailable. Ease of getting a sick visit
6) do they segregate well and sick visits? (ours does morning well visits and afternoon sick visits)
7) what is the call process after hours? how do you talk to the pedi at night or on the weekend?
8) Office staff is personable? easy to work with?
9) breastfeeding friendly? (this was important to us)
10) willingness to let us define the vaccination schedule instead of making us stick to the standard model.
11) proximity to our house -- If I had a vomiting child, I wanted to make sure that I didn't have to drive far with them in the car.


There are more, but these were the most important. I actually chose a pedi who did not practice at the hospital that I delivered at. This was a sacrifice, but she was so good, I didn't care and I haven't been sorry at all.

Good luck with everything, you've only got a few weeks left -- keep those babies in as long as you can!!

Cheers

Teri D