It is official. Changing OB’s.

Since my first OB appointment last week, I have been researching options on a new OB and/or midwife. What I found out is that my insurance doesn’t cover midwives and in my area, there are only one or two hospitals where midwives are allowed to deliver. Even my acupuncturist, who is totally into the natural approach, didn’t recommend me using a midwife. Midwife option is out.

I took advantage of my health insurance web page to do a comparison of 7 different hospitals in the area. I compared the following categories:

1) Vaginal Delivery
2) Cesarean Delivery
3) Pregnancy Complications
4) Normal Baby Delivery
5) Infant Premature
6) Infant Premature/Major Problems
7) Infant Full Term/Major Problems

The hospital where my current OB delivers highest ranking was 3 and that was for Cesarean. Hmm. Interesting that C-Section was the first thing Dr. G talked to me about. Don’t you think? It rated 5th for Infant Premature/Major Problems; 6th for Vaginal Delivery; and 7th for everything else.

I decided that I wanted to delivery at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena which ranked either 1 or 2 in every single category. Yes, it is further from my house by about 25 miles than the other hospital, but it clearly has one of the best records/results around. In addition, it has a Level 4 NICU, which is the highest level, and received above average or average ratings on patent satisfaction surveys.

I talked to a few local SMC’s about their OB and got a few recommendations. I sent an email to my RE and got a few more recommendations. And, I made a final decision today. I am going to Dr. P and have an appointment set for next Thursday. I feel really good about this decision. Did I happen to mention that Dr. P is married to Dr. N, my RE? I hear that she has all of the requirements that I am looking for in an OB.

In addition to being a skilled and knowledgeable OB dr.:
1) can deal with a paranoid, neurotic, and/or obsessive patient without making them feel more paranoid, neurotic, and/or obsessive
2) can deal with a patient who wants to ask a question or two or a lot more without feeling like their skills and knowledge is being questioned
3) has an u/s machine in their office to appease the paranoid, neurotic, and/or obsessive patient when needed

Some other “nice to have” features would be a doctor who meets you for the first time with your clothes on and responds to emails.

The added bonus is that she takes my HMO insurance. I was willing to go out of network and pay the 20% co-insurance, but turn out this wasn’t necessary.

I called my insurance company and changed medical groups and primary care physicians effective March 1st. I had been told that since I had already seen one OB that to change I would have to petition a change with medical management. However, the member service rep went ahead and allowed me to make the change since I had only had one appointment so far. We agreed that I just would not use the referral to the specialist when they came in the mail and wait for my new OB to refer me out.

Now, I just need to get the latest copy of the lab results before next week and I will be all set. I called Dr. G’s office today to find out if the results were in and to try to get a copy. Dr. G called me back himself and said everything was fine and normal. I asked how I could get a copy of the results, and was told I just need to stop by the office to get a copy. I was hoping they could just fax it to me, but I guess that would make it too easy. I felt a little guilty because he asked when he was seeing me again and if I had gotten the referral information, which I hadn’t. He was going to have his nurse follow up. If he remembered anything at all about me, he should have remembered that I regularly get copies of all of my medical records. Remember the file he didn’t really even look at?

I only felt a little guilty. Mostly, I felt relief.

I am very happy with my decision and am looking forward to my appointment with Dr. P next week. As odd as it sounds, I like the idea that Dr. N helped created my child and Dr. P, his wife, will help bring it into this world. It just brings a smile to my face when I think about it. While I haven't yet met Dr. P yet, I just have a really good feeling about this.