Knowing a physician's subspecialty or secondary specialty is vital. Just knowing a doctor is an orthopedic surgeon, for example, isn't sufficient to tell you whether he or she can repair your torn knee cartilage or perform your mother's hip replacement surgery. He or she may treat only shoulders, hands, the spine or children. And if you are looking for a primary care physician and you have a chronic condition such as a heart problem, you may want to see an internist who is also a cardiologist. Whether a doctor is board-certified is of great importance, experts say, because it shows he took extra years of training in his specialty and passed a stringent exam by the board of his specialty.
Many doctors are board-certified in more than one specialty.
Learning a doctor's hospital affiliation tells you if he or she has privileges to practice at the hospital you want to go to. Experts recommend that your primary care physician, who should know you and your medical history pretty well, be affiliated with your hospital so he can oversee your care while your surgeon focuses on your surgery. Hospital affiliation is also important because hospitals thoroughly examine a physician's credentials before granting privileges, and they continue to supervise his performance. One caution, as more surgery is performed in outpatient settings, a doctor may not have a hospital affiliations for good reason. If you pick a physician who is not on a hospital staff, is not in any medical society and can't show you a recent continuing medical education certificate, you should consider carefully before using that doctor, said American Medical Association board member Dr. William Mahood, a gastroenterologist in Pennsylvania.