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As someone that has been getting mail from AARP for many years, and has until now been in the care of doctors in a clinic type of a setting, I am finding it more and more important to me that I have a good relationship with one doctor, who's office is staffed with people that are capable of doing their part in the tasks that he or she prescribes. Simple stuff like receiving lab results and ensuring that they get to the doctor and the information that needs to get to me because of those results does. I have not had this experience with clinics, and I feel I need to find a doctor in private practice. I know that a lot of doctors are not taking new patients, so this isn't the best of times to be going 'doctor shopping', but my body has thrown me a few curve balls and I figure I have to just get on with it now, before the care I am getting has the opportunity to compromise my health. With this in mind, I am curious what sort of experiences people have had (I would love this to be a discussion of good doctors, not bad experiences people have had) and which doctors might be recommended.
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I could not find a Doctor accepting new patients so I had to go to Urgent Care for my swine flu case. Good Luck. We have mainland Blue Cross for 6 more months and then will probably switch to Kaiser Hawaii because at least they have Doctors. Walmart did take my prescriptions from the Urgent Care Doc with our Blue Cross PPO card.
Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany
www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com
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I had generally good experiences with Kaiser and they have a single doctor of record to handle you - which was nice. HMSA is a much less user friendly operation.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
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I have heard good things about Dr. Michelle Mitchell. I haven't seen her myself. I understand that she is taking new patients. Her main location is in Hilo and has just started coming to Volcano once a month.
Her info is:
Michelle Mitchell, MD
Hawaii Family Health, Inc.
50 Ululani Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Office: (808) 933-2399
Fax: (888) 679-0767 Toll Free
www.hawaiifamilyhealth.com
Robin
Trust me on this one. I am a person that has a wife that needs professional medical care on a regular base. When my Barbara was working her work provided her with Kaiser insurance for herself and the family. She became disabled and her insurance continued until her company went under [Mona Kea Resort] We had the option to pick up the insurance our self thru Cobra. Very expensive for the family around $1,200.00 a month so we chose to only have Barbara insured with Kaiser only $300.00 a month or so. When Barbara got her permeant disability Kaiser gave her a revised insurance policy for disabled and seniors for $115. a month on top of our regular medicare insurance. We still have all of the co-payments but Barbara gets the best care possible on a island. Kaiser is no utopia but it is the best that the islands have to offer and they have a real hospital in Honolulu. I know, my Barbara has months of recorded time there and it has saved her life more than ounce.
I on the other hand, only have Medicare and am limited to the clinic, what a difference, no comparison. One will usually heal themself or die by the time that they get to see a doctor. So I get to see both worlds of medicine and one ain’t pretty.
The Lack
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Have had good results with kaiser - btw much better clinic here in hawaii then others I have used. Less of a third worldish feel then some of the bigger cities in Cali.
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Kaiser works pretty well for me. I really like the all-in-one approach with the doctors, lab, and pharmacy all under one roof with the same computer system. They flew me, along with Bear, to Oahu at no charge for a colonoscopy, and I was quite impressed with the hospital facility there, although I was not admitted as a patient. The ambience was clean, modern, and friendly.
My only caveat would be the fact that on two separate occasions when I went on the waiting list for a follow-up with a specialist, they didn't call back within the promised time, or even close. On both occasions, I called them and insisted on an appointment and got one reasonably soon. When I told my primary doctor about this, she said, "It pays to be assertive in this system."
Cheers,
Jerry
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Thanks to all of you that have contributed to this thread, both here and to me privately. For better or worse at present I have HSMA, and have a condition that needs daily medical attention, at least in the sort run. At the moment juggling a change in doctor, let alone in insurance, is at the edge of my limits. Even dealing with just the medical side of things would be damn hard if it wasn't for the incredible advocate that my wife has become. I really have gathered a boat load of compassion for anyone that would find themselves in a similar predicament without an advocate. Just this idea of changing doctors has quickly shown itself for the ordeal that our news has alluded to it being. The whole experience, from being diagnosed, to coming up to speed with a condition and all the regiments necessary etc, has surely opened my eyes to the myriad of issues that our health care system is bogged down over. Regardless of that it is our system and one must find their way through it. Once again, thanks for the comments and suggestions.
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i was referred to buddy festerling by my doctor on o'ahu (straub clinic/summerlin health insurance). now, i have kaiser (individual plan) and see dr. davies whom i really like. i must say that i tried to schedule an eye exam to use a coupon that was sent to me and the waiting period was over a month. shoulda been more assertive like jerry.
"chaos reigns within.
reflect, repent and reboot.
order shall return."
microsoft error message with haiku poetry
"a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
w. james
As I read dakine's last post, rec's for Kaiser are not what he needs, because he has to stay with HMSA.
I wish I could help, but I had to go to Kona to find a doctor last year. I do hear it has eased up since the time I was looking around, Christmas of '07, which was dismal.
Sometimes I go to the Family Medicine Center in Hilo, Dr. Laurie Hopman. She's a good doctor, and efficient. I don't know if she's taking new patients.
PS. I was referred to her from the ER. I gather that if you go there and don't have a PCP they will refer you to someone for one follow-up. In my case she allowed me to come back even though she wasn't taking patients at the time.
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