Is There A Doctor In The House?

This week's guest columnist is Dr. Meighan Anderson, a Family Practice resident at the University Hospital and Clinics here in Lafayette. She's 10 years old.  She has asthma and eczema, but hasn't seen her regular doctor in a year- her pediatrician retired and mom hasn't found a new doctor yet- life's so busy!  Yet the girl has had several asthma flares requiring Emergency Department visits. The itching from her eczema is also making life miserable, with sleepless nights and scaly skin.  Visits to walk-in clinics have yielded treatments that haven't worked. Many kids don't visit their regular doctor enough.  When they get sick, Urgent Care clinics are so convenient.  Sometimes the family's moved and not found a new doctor locally.  Sometimes their doctor has retired, or doesn't take the family's new insurance.  We also hear a lot of "he's never sick, he hasn't needed a doctor," in the ER. Having your own doctor is more important than many realize, especially for kids with chronic conditons like our 10 year-old asthmatic.  For kids with these issues, only their doctor has reliable records of what has already been tried, what worked and what hasn't.  Office-based doctors are better trained and more experienced with these conditions too, rather than Urgent Care or ER providers, whose focus is acute illness.    Finally, office doctors are where to go for vaccinations, school physicals, and specialist referrals. The first step to find a doctor is your insurance.  If your child has medicaid, only certain practices accept that, though most pediatricians take some medicaid patients.  If you have private insurance, that company will provide a list of accepting doctors.  Office location is important too- shorter trips from your home are helpful with busy lives.  Then you need to decide what kind of doctor to pick.  If your child is newborn through teenage years, a board-certified pediatrician is best.  If your kid is a late teen, soon to be 18 years-old, a Family Practice or Internal Medicine doctor is better, since they can take care of him into his adult years.  They take care of parents too! "The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul.  Although the two cannot be separated." -Plato Though Plato wrote this over 2000 years ago, it's still relevant.  Above we discussed finding your child a doctor- insurance accepted, location, and specialty (Pediatrics, Family Practice, Internal Medicine).  But is the physician right for your child's body and soul?  And your soul too? Cultivating the doctor-patient relationship is important to successful care.  One of the  determinants in this is a practice style called "shared decision making."  This is where you and a doctor negotiate what is possible for care, rather than the doctor dictating what you should do, and you being expected to follow blindly. What does shared decision making look like?  In some cases, there isn't much sharing.  Technical issues are decided by the expert- the doctor.  For example, your child has a sore throat.  It could be a virus and resolve in a few days, or strep throat, requiring an antibiotic.  A strep test is done, it's negative, and the doctor doesn't prescribe an antibiotic, because it won't help and may have side effects. But what if your child always has a sore throat and it seems allergic?  With chronic illness like allergy, where lifestyle affects your kid's illness, shared decision making is a must.  Should you go to an allergist, or would this be too much trouble, or does the thought of skin pin-prick allergy testing freak you both out?  Should you try some anti-allergy medication first?  Which one- inhaled, sprayed in the nose, or swallowed liquid, or a pill?  Which will your kid tolerate, and which is most effective?  Can you afford to tear up your carpet and put in hardwood floors for better dust control, and what about the smokers in the house?  Will they quit, can they quit? All these questions should be explored with your doctor.  What is doable, what is best for your child, what can you and your kid tolerate, to optimize your child's care?  Together you all decide on realistic goals and expectations.  In the old days, the doctor was always the boss.  These days, to deliver the most effective care, sometimes she's boss, sometimes you are, often you're co-captains of the team