primary care physician recommendation-Boston

not sure what blue cross covers but my primary care is Dr. Jonathon Smith with BIDMC. The down side is his practice is based in Wayland, MA so you need a car (and a little time to spare) to get out there. I'd been having knee issues and he referred me to see an orthpedist at the BI without question

Ladies and gentlemen, the American health care system!

student in California wrote:

not sure what blue cross covers but my primary care is Dr. Jonathon Smith with BIDMC.

I have nothing to say for or against this PCP, but BIDMC Boston is a facility to avoid. They nearly killed my mother.

crunchie t wrote:

student in California wrote:

not sure what blue cross covers but my primary care is Dr. Jonathon Smith with BIDMC.

I have nothing to say for or against this PCP, but BIDMC Boston is a facility to avoid. They nearly killed my mother.

Likely translation: your mother nearly died of well-known complications related to a medium-to-high risk procedure and she happened to be at BIDMC Boston.

Actual translation: mom was in for a minor procedure and the hospitalist mixed up her meds list with someone else. They gave her a cocktail of the wrong meds and she coded.

crunchie t wrote:

Actual translation: mom was in for a minor procedure and the hospitalist mixed up her meds list with someone else. They gave her a cocktail of the wrong meds and she coded.

Sucks. So one doctor messed up. How that translates into an indictment of an entire institution is beyond me.

inb4 "if they hired him who knows who else they hired"

No wonder doctors get so burnt out. Dealing with the public and their idiocy is exhausting.

Yeah, I guess the occasional major screw up that nearly results in the death of an innocent lady who put her trust in the staff to take care of her minor procedure and get get out of there in 24 hours us no big deal.

Let me know if you want to hear more horror stories about BIDMC.

crunchie t wrote:

Yeah, I guess the occasional major screw up that nearly results in the death of an innocent lady who put her trust in the staff to take care of her minor procedure and get get out of there in 24 hours us no big deal.

Let me know if you want to hear more horror stories about BIDMC.

Sorry to hear about your mom - glad she survived and that's truly unfortunate.

That said, BIDMC is ranked as the 4th best hospital in the state by USNWR and one of the top in the country for several sub-specialties:

crunchie t wrote:

Yeah, I guess the occasional major screw up that nearly results in the death of an innocent lady who put her trust in the staff to take care of her minor procedure and get get out of there in 24 hours us no big deal.

Let me know if you want to hear more horror stories about BIDMC.

Yes, unfortunately that is the reality of any human effort. Where people are involved, there are errors at both the best and the worst levels -- what you need to look at is the error rate.

native newtonite wrote:

Sorry to hear about your mom - glad she survived and that's truly unfortunate.

That said, BIDMC is ranked as the 4th best hospital in the state by USNWR and one of the top in the country for several sub-specialties:

http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/ma/beth-israel-deaconess-medical-center-6140013

No way dude, crunchie t said it isn't so. Clearly an anonymous poster on Letsrun knows better than US News!

In all seriousness, bad stuff happens in all hospitals, from Podunk Community Hospital to MGH/BIDMC. Some of it is preventable, and on very rare occasions some things are due to gross negligence. It sucks but it's how things go. Most patients and laypeople have a poor (at best) understanding of what actually occurs in a hospital or the decisions/processes that drive the experiences. So, unfortunately, they become very poor reporters of "what happened" when something goes wrong.

I'm actually a former hospital employee, so I have a bit more insight than most.

I think the rating showing BIDMC as 4th in the area says it all. There are better options.

crunchie t wrote:

I'm actually a former hospital employee, so I have a bit more insight than most.

So is the guy who cleans BIDMC's toilets, but he's not qualified to opine on physician outcomes either.

#7 according to the latest

http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/search?hospital_name=&city=Massachusetts

Fact checker wrote:

#7 according to the latest

http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/search?hospital_name=&city=Massachusetts

Clearly "Massachusetts General Hospital for Children" is a part of MGH, "Baystate Children's Hospital" is a part of Baystate Medical Center, and Boston Children's is just a children's hospital. So you linked to the same year's rankings which showed the same thing - the BI is ranked 4th in Massachusetts for hospitals for adults.

crunchie t wrote:

I'm actually a former hospital employee, so I have a bit more insight than most.

I think the rating showing BIDMC as 4th in the area says it all. There are better options.

Baystate Medical Center in Springfield is "in the area"? BIDMC is ranked 3rd out of hospitals in eastern Massachusetts - but when you consider that it's behind MGH and BWH, two of the best in the country, that's not a bad ranking. Especially when you consider it's up against Dana Farber, New England Baptist, Boston Medical Center, Tufts New England Medical Center, and a number of highly regarded hospitals in the surrounding suburbs.

So yes, being ranked 3rd in Metro Boston clearly implies there are better options - two, as far as USNWR is concerned. But there are also a plethora of "worse" options that provide a much higher standard of care than is available in many parts of the country.

I thought the discussion was about actual hospitals rather than networks. My apologies.

Getting back on subject.... Any suggestions...Anyone else ???