Check doctors medical license

Doctors must apply for privileges to admit and treat patients at hospitals. If you have a preferred hospital, it is important that the doctor has privileges to practice there.

Some sites will note which hospitals a doctor is affiliated with. Facilities where a doctor has privileges do additional and ongoing checks of the doctor's credentials, which can be an assurance of their validity. A doctor may have been reported problems for anything from a bad attitude to an unclean office to malpractice. Problems for others may become problems for you.

The FSMB site will list any actions related to medical malpractice , but you may want to do further web searches for the doctor by name for suits that may be pending. To find general commentary about a doctor's practice, you might turn to some of the online doctors' rating sites. However, be aware that these ratings are subjective and may have been influenced in many ways. If the doctor is involved in medical research, then their involvement is important to you.

Not all doctors participate in medical research, but if they are affiliated with academic or university medical centers, there is a good chance they are.

On the one hand, it means they are learning more about your problem, ways to diagnose or treat it, and may be considered experts in the field. On the other hand, it may mean they are being paid by drug or other medical manufacturing companies and their recommendations to you might or might not be skewed.

Conflicts of interest have become a major problem, revealing themselves in recommendations being made to patients that aren't necessarily in the best interests of the patient. These conflicts may mean you will be prescribed a drug you don't really need, or they may mean you are pushed into a clinical trial that is more for the benefit of the doctor than for you.

To learn about possible involvement in medical research, do a general online search with the doctor's name and the word "publication" or "research.

You will want to review a doctor's personality and attitudes if you will have a long-term relationship with the doctor as a primary care doctor or in a specialty where you will have ongoing care such as a cardiologist, endocrinologist, or allergist. Choosing a doctor who you will have to visit on regular occasions over a number of years means it's important you get along with each other.

Choosing one of these doctors is similar to choosing a spouse. With some of them, you may even need to be more intimate than you are with your partner. A doctor with an arrogant or otherwise difficult personality won't help you nearly so much as one with a more pleasant personality. A doctor with a different belief system—cultural or religious—may make it difficult to get the care you need or want.

There are two ways to get information about a doctor's personality and attitudes:. Doing good background research on a doctor is a good way to gain confidence in your choice before you ever see that doctor.

When coupled with general advice about choosing the right doctor for you, you have a far better chance of being satisfied with the relationship. Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

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