Choosing the Right Specialist for You: Taking Care of Chronic Diseases

Everyone will, in time, develop a chronic disease. Unfortunately, our body does not come with a money back guarantee, so we are stuck with the one that we have. This means that proper care and maintenance is an absolute "must have."

So when a chronic disease does occur, how do you make certain that you're confident in taking care of it? These decisions start with a referral from your primary care physician to the right specialist, but it must be the right specialist FOR YOU. Choosing the right specialist requires asking your primary care physician some important questions. First, if the doctor were sick, would the doctor send your family member to this specialist? Does the specialist communicate well with the doctor, and does the specialist communicate well with the patients? Is the specialist skilled, and smart? If the specialist is a surgeon, how well has the surgeon done with the primary doctor's previous patients who were referred? Does the specialist take the patient's type of insurance? Will the patient need an authorization to see the specialist, and can patients see the specialist quickly without long delays waiting for an appointment?

At a recent conference, physician Dr. Teresa Gilewski showed a film which she had made about her patients who had cancer in order to emphasize what traits the patients believed were necessary in a specialist to deal with their chronic condition. The patients all emphasized that the specialist should have kindness, express compassion, be gentle, and instill within the patient hope for controlling the disease and/or its symptoms. A very insistent patient stressed that the specialist should listen to what the patient and their family want to tell them, and be able to explain in understandable terms how the patient is going to get through the tests and treatments.

Everyone said that the specialist should have a good bedside manner and that they should care not only about the patient, but also about the family, since they were going to be part of the support team and would help to determine the success of the treatments. One patient emphasized that the most important step in being able to cope with a chronic illness and succeed was selecting a good specialist. Another emphasized that the physician should be able to make the patient be hopeful enough that they could laugh. The physician should look at the patient as a whole, including the psychological aspects of the disease.

An overwhelming theme from all of the patients in the film, and my patients as well, is that the doctor should be willing to spend an extra few minutes talking with the patient to find out how the patient really feels about the illness and what the patient needs to maintain their function free as possible of any symptoms or side effect, so that they can enjoy life and being with their family and friends. Fortunately most patients can find specialists who smiled when talking with them, which helped to instill hope, optimism, and faith in the doctor and the treatments.

As one of my colleagues said to me, a new patient is like a blind date. Until you actually go out with them, you cannot be certain whether they are going to be just the right person for you. The same is true of a specialist. You have to meet with the specialist and discuss your condition in order to make certain that the specialist is the right specialist for you!

If you are sent to the specialist and are having difficulty in understanding what the treatment plan is about, or if you are having difficulty communicating, or if you do not trust the skills of the specialist, be certain to consider getting a second opinion. If the doctor feels that your condition is not hopeful, consider getting a second opinion. To find another specialist, start with your primary care physician. More advice on how to select physicians will appear in future columns.