How did you pick a doctor/practitioner?

[kitkatkaddoodle]

I am brand new to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and have no friends or family in the area. My son is 6 months old and I need to chose a health care provider, hopefully a long-term choice. How do I do this? I just kind of went with the doctor that was assigned by the military at our last duty station--she was pretty mellow, but a little old-school, so I probably would have been looking around for someone new soon anyway.

How did you find someone when you don't know anyone in the area? How do you feel them out?

Did you do "interview" kind of consultations? What did you ask?

What things ended up being most important? Anything you were surprised that made a big difference?

What things did you THINK would be important that did not end up being so?

Anything else I should consider?

I'm sorry if this is stuff that's repeated too much, but I'm not good with the search engine. If this should be posted on a different forum, please let me know as well.

Thank you so much!

[love2bmom]

I usually get hooked in with La Leche League or the local homeschool group (may not apply to you, but might to others reading). A lot of times if you call the local LLL they may be willing to give a recommendation. If you are able to attend a meeting you will be able to get lots of opinions on the local doctors.
If you're military, is there a "welcome" group of some sort at the base? Or a mother's group?
When I'm asking I usually say things like, "I'm looking for a doctor that doesn't want to micromange the family." or "I'm looking for a pediatrician that won't be militant about vaccines." I really think personal referals are the best. You can go to the Finding Your Tribe area here and find Virginia - then ask those mamas. That's a great way!
Here's the link to that group.

[mytwogirls]

I second going to LLL

[amnda527]

My area has a local ap online group and I asked a few mamas on there who they went to. We've been seeing this doc since then, and we are very happy! Before that, I just went with a doc that my midwife rec. She was ok but nothing spectacular. I asked a neighbor where she took her son, but that doctor used scare-tactics to get me to give my dd her hep b shot, and that was the last time we saw him!

[plunky]

My wife made a post about how she looked for our doctor here: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...96&postcount=2

[kchara]

I came here and asked in the Finding Your Tribe Forum. Our first appt with the new pedi is next week, but I'm really glad we got in and I got some recommendations, instead of going with someone in the phone book.