How easy/hard is it to get good medical care in ABQ and its environs (Albuquerque: live in, safe)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I moved here five years ago from a small town of about 50,000 that was maybe an hour from a major university hospital in another town but there were five hospitals in the two towns (combined 150k population). When I moved here I found a PCP that was better than the last three I had going back 35 years. I have no recollection of any wait time when I signed up with the new doctor (Presbyterian network) but it could have been a week or two. This doctor listens to what I say which is a new experience for me.
I recently had my hip replaced at Presbyterian Hospital. My PCP referred me to a Presbyterian Ortho surgeon but I didn't like him and the wait was excessive. I got my doctor to do a different referral and had a two week wait and the surgeon was great (NM Ortho). You have to be your own health advocate and speak up to get what you want.
I've been to three of four other specialists on referrals from this PCP and wait times have been longer than I'd like but I can live with it. My doctor tells me to get to urgent care or the Rust ER if I have a critical problem. I've done that twice and have no complaints.
Thanks, Rich! I'll remember your offer. I keep these responses with details in a special folder to review later in case I need to get details again. I've gotten so much valuable information on these c-d forums.
Could you clarify? Did it take you two months to eventually make an appt, like having to call multiple times, etc, or you had to wait two months before an appt time was available? It's probably the latter, but just to be sure...
This is all very good information, specific. You give me a good place to start investigating where to go and what to look for. One of the things I did consider was the salaries and also, perhaps, the working conditions. People will go where the money is, so I would expect the exceptional to be hard to find where salaries are low.
We called in July before we left and both saw the same PCP on Sept 12 at Davita. The doc did say 2 MDs left and he had taken their case load. I just saw my urologist for the first time and I believe I called to make that appointment in Sept.
Poncho, thanks so much for these links. I know one thread is very recent, and it's good to read again. You always get to the heart of the questions and post links to threads that I find quite helpful. I wish I could find links the way you do.
I used to do some programming, ran a few BBS's and was familiar with the software. Just learning how to search and using the correct keywords to search...
Where you go depends on what insurance the hospital or clinics accept. Your insurance may not allow you to see doctors at Presbyterian. So verify that before making an appointment and ending up with an exorbitant bill. I know several people who are experiencing difficulties getting appointments with primary care doctors as some aren't accepting new patients and others are booking 3-4 months out. If you have a medical emergency, go to one of the ERs on the West side or an urgent care clinic. Duke City Urgent care is probably one of the best that I ever dealt with in NM. The ERs on the West Side seem to not be as busy as the ones downtown or the ones in the NE. I've waited for 10 hours at Lovelace Women's hospital and 8 hours at Kaseman Presbyterian. The shortest wait was Lovelace Westside, 45 minutes to see a doctor.
Manage your expectations when it comes to wait times for specialists. My coworker had a 6 month wait to see a neurologist. I had a 4 month wait to see a GI and neurologist. If you're coming from a larger city with quick access to healthcare, this can be discouraging. The wait times to see doctors and a major misdiagnosis at Lovelace were some of the factors that influenced my decision to leave NM.
I recently had my hip replaced at Presbyterian Hospital. My PCP referred me to a Presbyterian Ortho surgeon but I didn't like him and the wait was excessive. I got my doctor to do a different referral and had a two week wait and the surgeon was great (NM Ortho). You have to be your own health advocate and speak up to get what you want.
Yes, it's imperative to be one's own advocate with healthcare. I appreciate hearing about your overall experiences, which sound encouraging, quite good overall! Many thanks for all you've shared.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moonpie504
Where you go depends on what insurance the hospital or clinics accept. Your insurance may not allow you to see doctors at Presbyterian. So verify that before making an appointment and ending up with an exorbitant bill. I know several people who are experiencing difficulties getting appointments with primary care doctors as some aren't accepting new patients and others are booking 3-4 months out. If you have a medical emergency, go to one of the ERs on the West side or an urgent care clinic. Duke City Urgent care is probably one of the best that I ever dealt with in NM. The ERs on the West Side seem to not be as busy as the ones downtown or the ones in the NE. I've waited for 10 hours at Lovelace Women's hospital and 8 hours at Kaseman Presbyterian. The shortest wait was Lovelace Westside, 45 minutes to see a doctor.
Great details - thanks Moonpie!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moonpie504
Manage your expectations when it comes to wait times for specialists. My coworker had a 6 month wait to see a neurologist. I had a 4 month wait to see a GI and neurologist. If you're coming from a larger city with quick access to healthcare, this can be discouraging. The wait times to see doctors and a major misdiagnosis at Lovelace were some of the factors that influenced my decision to leave NM.
The "manage your expectations" made me nod, yes, smile and nod, uh-huh. This is what this thread has made clear, and now we must contemplate if this will work in the end for us. I had a dog with significant spinal pain and took her to a veterinary acupuncturist. I couldn't believe how much the treatments helped reduce her pain to almost zero. It was worth the money for the weekly treatments. Then the acupuncturist vet moved, so I tried 2 other vet acupuncturists, but neither of them gave her any relief at all. In fact, one of them made things worse. I gave up on acupuncture for her after that.
When you've had the best, it sets expectations at a certain level. We're exploring this concept in ourselves to see if we choose to change our expectations or feel we're making a logical choice to keep them as they are with regard to medical care.
Thank you again to everyone - we appreciate your helping us by sharing your experiences and giving such details. We now know where to look for healthcare, have a decent idea which insurances are available locally. We now know we will ask about medical benefits and get specific details during job interviews or when offered positions at companies. You've been extremely helpful with all the details.
OP, have you decided on Albuquerque, rather than Santa Fe? I haven't encountered any of the problems you mention, in Santa Fe. And I've never heard of being "assigned" a PCP. Who does the assigning? In any case, if you've already decided on ABQ as your future home, disregard this message. Just thought I'd mention, that the situation is much better in SF.
When you've had the best, it sets expectations at a certain level. We're exploring this concept in ourselves to see if we choose to change our expectations or feel we're making a logical choice to keep them as they are with regard to medical care.
Is this going to be the basis for a TED talk? Just kidding. I'm actually enjoying your thinking out loud about these issues.
There are lots of acupuncturists here, although I don't know anything about veterinary acupuncturists.
Hopefully these sites's ratings will help... It does not appear to be a cut and dry situation... I have not really had the time to go through the sites, I just verified that they did exist, and the website did operate. Yes, there are some hoaky sites on the Internet...
In Best Places To Live
7 Best Places to Live in Albuquerque for Top Healthcare
Living in New Mexico is good for your health, but some areas of Albuquerque are better than others. Here are the best.
Moderator cut: link removed, competitor site
OP, have you decided on Albuquerque, rather than Santa Fe? I haven't encountered any of the problems you mention, in Santa Fe. And I've never heard of being "assigned" a PCP. Who does the assigning? In any case, if you've already decided on ABQ as your future home, disregard this message. Just thought I'd mention, that the situation is much better in SF.
The ABQ area will have the jobs we're after, so we'll move closer to ABQ than SF, although not live in the city proper. It's reassuring to know you don't run into the same problems in SF regarding health care that some do in ABQ. Maybe that's why a lot of people end up retiring in SF if it's within their means...and maybe the retirees (who are the baby boomers who changed so much that benefited the rest of us who followed) expect and demand better care, so they get it...
Hasn't actually helped with something that my ENT and others have thought might be neurogenic, but it has had some other positives.
Thanks for the link to the AP site, Nomad! Acupuncture is utterly amazing, and I believe the trend now is to include scalp points in any treatment since the brain is connected to all parts of the body. Brain plasticity is very much on the surface in medical literature these days since the myth that once brain cells are lost, that's the end of that and the brain cannot recover. All that's debunked now. Super, super exciting times. It's reassuring to know there are a lot of acupuncturists locally. I do believe in, and I've seen and experienced, huge positive changes in health with acupuncture.
OMG, PonchoNM! You have helped me use up a good portion of my Sunday morning and am well into my afternoon with these links! I can't thank you enough for finding these for me. I mean, really, this is amazing information and is helping us decide what to do. Last night, we talked, we did, and we concluded health care is just too important in those times that we need it to risk not getting exceptional care. Here in WA - per your links - we're in the top 10 in the US, and we have experienced exceptional care here. To think we'd lose that (come to find 36/50)...that spooked us. We were sad.
Then we got up this morning. Talked a bit. Talked about where we'd live in NM, a cool area, close to the Sandias, the fantastic freeways, the lack of traffic (this is all relative, you understand, based on where we are now), this wild new adventure...and we fell into that vacillation place again. Then I saw your links, and there is something to seeing things ranked, seeing all options, what's available, returning to prior posts and links on this thread, and then reconsidering - what, do we play it safe in life or take a chance? So that's where we are now, back again in NM's corner. There's this company, a dream company near ABQ, and if an interview comes of our interest, the job/company proves to be as good as it seems now, and then a job offer, we've decided ABQ will be our new digs.
Nomad, If you think THIS deliberation is like a TED talk, hang on to your pants! If a move is imminent, after all I will have posted on the ABQ/NM forums as we move, I'll probably have a big party for everyone from this forum who posted on my threads. Just you wait and see!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
