Finding a new doctor, especially a specialist whom you can trust as advisor for your diabetes, can be a very important part of making your move a success. Here are some hints we'd advise you
to consider.
- Talk over your upcoming move with your present endocrinologist. He/she can help out, as mentioned below, and may personally know someone in your new location.
- Look at the American Diabetes Association provider listings to find a physician who has met the criteria of the ADA's Provider Recognition Program.
- Call (800) TEAMUP4, a service of the American Association of Diabetes Educators. They have listings of doctors who are diabetes educators, as well as of diabetes nurses and other health professionals who can help you find an appropriate diabetes doc.
- You can borrow a copy of several Membership Directories, and see who's spent their money to pay their dues! Usually, you can find out lots of other information about them, also. Examples of organizations with directories that may be available from your present endocrinologist include:
- American Association of Diabetes Educators (members are interested in diabetes education; many are nurses or dietitians but some are physicians);
- American Diabetes Association (members are interested in diabetes but many are in research or teaching; some are physicians in clinical practice);
- Endocrine Society (same comments as those about the ADA); and
- American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (most of the endocrinologists who belong to this organization are in clinical practice).
These directories fortunately have entries allowing you to figure out which physicians are more interested in seeing patients, as compared to doing "rat research."
- Find out which hospitals have diabetes education programs that are "Recognized" by the American Diabetes Association, and find out which doctors are associated with these programs.
- Call the diabetes nurse educators at two or three hospitals (especially those Recognized by the ADA) that are in your new neighborhood. Ask the diabetes nurses who they'd trust.
- Call the local office of the American Diabetes Association, and ask if they maintain a referral list (look in the Yellow Pages under Diabetes Organizations).
- Call the Referral Service at any hospital (look in the Yellow Pages under Physician Referral Services). Be VERY specific about the kind of physician you want: some Referral Services will give you a generalist who dabbles in diabetes, which may not be what you want! Be sure to call several Referral Services, since they will ONLY give you names of physicians who are on the staff of their hospital.
If you find that the same name recurs using several of these methods, you've probably got a winner! But, no matter what, you'll have to try the doctor out. So, set a "get-acquainted" appointment to meet with the doctor. When setting up the appointment, ask the staff to alert the physician that you'll want to go over your diabetes treatment program and review your past records during the first visit. Bring along your "Traveling Medical Record" (photocopies of your recent medical records) to review with your new doctor, including:
- Letters from one physician to another, or to you.
- Recent lab results.
- Recent hospital Discharge Summaries, Consultations, and other typed hospital reports.
- Anything else in your chart that your previous endocrinologist and his staff want to hand you.
