Luck of the Draw

What's the best way to find a competent professional to assist you?

Most people say that you should get referrals from friends or neighbors. That's tough when moving to a new place and you don't know all that many people. We've been living in the Denver area for almost two years and have had some trouble finding doctors we are happy with.

We totally scored on a pediatrician in North Carolina. Pretty much our approach was 1) no foreign-sounding names and 2) no mega-practices. We were on Harris Teeter health insurance at the time, which wasn't exactly the best, but found a pediatrician that we were totally pleased with on the first try.

We needed a pediatrician when we moved back to the Rocky Mountains. My sister-in-law has kids, so she would have been happy to recommend one to us. Only they're on Kaiser Permanente and we're not - so that approach didn't work. So we tried looking one up in the insurance book and went a couple of times. I personally didn't meet the doctor, but Elizabeth was not impressed and decided she wouldn't be going back. So we've been dragging our feet on finding another one and little Russ is five months past his well baby visit.

We've typically tried to avoid the mega-pratices, where they have like ten doctors and whoever doesn't have anything better to do is the one that sees you. But with no better options in "the book", Elizabeth tried calling one. They were currently taking appointments for October. Really, ten doctors and the soonest you can get us in is two months down the road? We wound up getting an appointment with a smaller practice - two doctors - and we'll see how that works out.

And then there's the OB/GYN situation. Elizabeth's on her fifth pregnancy and has seen about a hundred doctors over that time. The only one she really liked that much was the first one. When we moved here, she asked a friend for a referral, but it quickly became evident this wouldn't be a long-lasting relationship. I went to one of the early appointments and it was. . . tense. The doctor is pretty much, "We're going to do this my way because I'm the one treating you," and Elizabeth is all, "You can kiss my butt." They have some very different ideas on what should go down and the doctor has below-average communication skills.

So my advice was to find another one. Most of my co-workers also felt that she should bail if she didn't like the doctor. So we're back to square one - how do you find a good doctor? My co-worker recommended one but Elizabeth nixed it due to their advertised willingness to perform abortions. There are hundreds of OBGYNs in the metro area. Who has time to sort through all the rubbish to find the one you can get along with? The referral method didn't work the first time around. So she's still going to the doctor she doesn't like and they are still having disagreements and Elizabeth is angry when she gets home from those appointments. And the baby's due in three and a half months. We might be stuck.

But when we needed a realtor, we pretty much went with the first one we had any contact with. And he did a great job. We were totally satisfied with him.

I guess the main point of this is that it seems to be pretty much the luck of the draw when it comes to choosing a professional. Sure, you'd love to interview 10 or 12 and pick the best one, but who has the time for that? And what doctor would put up with that?

Now if I could just find a decent accountant. . .