Choosing Your Baby’s Healthcare Provider
There are several types of medical care providers that you can bring on board to your team to assist you as you care for and raise your baby. These providers include Pediatricians, Nurse Practitioners or Family Practice Doctors. But what route is best? What are the benefits to one over the other? And where can I look for a few good options in my local area? We are going to tackle these important questions so that you can feel even just a little more confident in your decision making.
First, let’s start with the basics. A nurse practitioner is an advanced practice registered nurse that must work under the supervision of a medical doctor. They can order all the same tests, do all of the same diagnostics and make medical decisions for all the same patients, that a family practitioner can-they just require a supervising physician to sign off. A pediatrician or a family practice doctor is an independent practitioner. In fact, you can have a busy medical practice with any type of medical doctor and you may also find nurse practitioners on staff, as well.
A pediatrician specializes in infants and children up to the age of 18, in some areas. Some pediatricians will see young adults up to the age of 26. These doctors specialize in all things that a child might face. If they can’t do something specific, like help heal broken bones, they will refer the child out to a specialist.
A family practice doctor is really intended to care for the whole family. Some will see patients from birth to death, so to speak. Some, will only specialize in geriatrics, sports medicine, emergency medicine or other things. Most often, a family practice doctor will see the whole family for common illnesses and basic patient care. These providers know a little about a LOT, so they will refer out to a specialist as needed, too.
What do you need to consider when choosing a care provider?
Some of the things you might consider when choosing a provider is, how close is their office to your home or work? Will it be easy to get your baby there quickly if they are ill? Do they take ‘after hours’ appointments and if so, when? Do they take your insurance? Is there an after-hours nurse line that you can call with urgent questions or concerns? For example: a high fever in the night when everything is normally closed. Do the doctors have a good reputation in the area? If you have friends or family that can give you their opinions, absolutely ask for them! Ask around. You will find out what kind of care you can expect from most doctors and nurse practitioners if you ask around in your community. You might also learn about wait times, appointment availability and what their policies are about vaccination-if you ask around. If you don’t get all the answers you need, call the offices and make appointments to just interview the providers. If they won’t let you do this, that’s a pretty good answer about what you might be faced with in the future. For me, this means I would eliminate that provider. Either you’re too busy to meet new families and help them feel comfortable or you just don’t care. Either way, not a platform for good relationships.
How many well-child visits will there be during the first year of life?
While you might not think it’s that big of an issue to commit to a provider, you actually might be surprised. What you might not know, is that your baby should have well visits at 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months. This doesn’t include any illnesses that your baby might have or any feeding issues or other things that might require another set of eyes to look at your baby. That’s a LOT of time spent in a provider’s office. You might be given a lot of advice and care in that time. You will absolutely want to be certain you like and trust the provider you’ve chosen.
Local providers in Southeast Michigan
If you’re from the area that Michigan Family Doulas serves (which is all of SE Michigan), you know that there are healthcare systems with the University of Michigan, St. Joseph Mercy Health System, Ascension, Henry Ford Healthcare and others. You can certainly find a provider that you like within those healthcare systems and you might even be able to see a pediatrician, for example, that also has Nurse Practitioners on staff. This might be really great because, quite often, it’s faster to be seen by the Nurse Practitioner and you’ll get the same great care across the whole office. If a large, hospital-based care provider isn’t for you-there are many great private medical offices. One example of a private Family Practice Doctor would be Epic Primary Care. Epic Primary Care has offices in Ferndale, Southfield, Hamtramck and Livernois, and adding new offices all the time. They care for the whole family! One example of a private pediatrician office might be Twelve Oaks Pediatrics in Novi or Turke & Thomashow in Ann Arbor. There are so many great private options to choose from!
