[diamondgirl45]

We would like to find a family doctor who works in a certain hospital. How do we go about this? We don't want to have to go all the way to downtown Detroit in an emergency. Any advice?

[Cliffie]

I would look at the hospital's website to get the names of their practitioners, then start calling to see which ones take your coverage.

[ImaMichigander]

A few things....

Most Family Practioners-- docs who see from infants to the elderly-- do not see patients in the hospital. They will admit to an Internal Medicine doc for their adult patients-- usually someone who covers their in-patients-- and then a peditrician. Many of the smaller hospitals in the Metro Detroit area do not have in-patient pediatrics, so your child would likely go to Children's in Detroit, Mott's Children's in Ann Arbor, Oakwood Main in Dearborn or Henry Ford Main in Detroit. If you want someone that can see and your spouse and kids, an FP is what you want. If you need someone for your and your spouse and a seperate doc for your kids, you can do FP or Internal Med for the adults and a pediatrician for your kids.

With all of that said... Most hospitals have a service on their website where you can find a doc. ie. henryford.com or Oakwood.org. You can search by specialty and then go from there and they should list the office locations, so you can find something close to your home. You should also be able to go through your insurance and that may save you a phone call, as you wouldn't have to check with the doc to see if they take your insurance and if they are accepting new patients. (A caution to be aware of, just because they take your insurance does not mean that they are accepting new patients with that insurance. Sometimes they have reached their limit they can take of patients within a certain insurance.)

With all of THAT said, now let's address ER visits. Most insurances believe if it is life threatening, go to the closest facility. If you have a 10 year old with a twisted ankle that needs to be seen, go to where your insurance recommends. If you think that someone will be admitted, then go to where your doctor is on staff or where he or she has someone that they want to admit to (see above if that is unclear.)

For example, my child went to the doctor complaining of belly pain. Her pediatrician wanted to rule out appendicitis, so she sent her to the hospital where she is on staff for a walk in diagnostic procedure. The ultrasound was positive for appendicitis. That hospital doesn't do in-patient peds. We were given the choice of all of the hospitals I listed above. We went to Ann Arbor. We never saw an ER until we got to Ann Arbor, where we were an ER direct admit-- meaning they knew we were coming, and so they held a bed for us.

Now, then you get into the fact that Metro Detroit has HUGE Health Systems. IE Henry Ford has the Main hospital in Detroit, big satellite facilities in Dearborn, West Bloomfield and Sterling Heights which all have ER's and then mini satellites like Woodhaven and Taylor that do not. They also have hospitals are that Henry Ford, but a bit different, like Wyandotte, Bi-County in Warren and Cottage-Bon Secors on the East side. Depending what you need, you could probably go to a number of those facilities and your doc would still be able to get your records and such becuase they are all part of the system. The same would be true for Oakwood, DMC, Beaumont, etc. Not true for smaller stand alone hospitals like Botsford or Gardern City....

Health Care, I know. If this helped, great! If you have more questions, please feel free to message me. Depending on where you live, I may even have some suggestions.

[DaniellaG]

Where do you live? I know for ex if you go to Henry Ford in WB emergency if something happens and they can't help you they send you down to Detroit through ambulance. I have health issues and have not had the best luck with MI nor other states I guess but I agree at looking at the hospital websites. I guess for myself and I have been every where like UCLA,Cleveland Clinic etc I would stick with Beaumont,Henry Ford cause it is a teaching hospital,and U of M.

[diamondgirl45]

Thank you. We found a clinic that uses the hospital we wanted to use. Now we don't have to worry about being seperated by distance if any of us need to be admitted. There is so much to learn moving to a new place.