Do you have problems with your bones and joints? Or, is it a fracture? Whatever it is, for all the medical problems related to the musculoskeletal system, ensure that you get your treatment from the best medical professional.
Are you looking for the best orthopedic doctor in India near you? If yes, this write-up approaches the same concern in detail. One should consider the following points to choose the best specialist for any problems related to bones, joints and muscles.
Qualifications
Make sure the doctor you see has an M.B.B.S degree from a valid and recognised medical institution and is registered under the medical council.
Besides, the doctor must have specialist degrees like M.S. and M.Ch in orthopedics. You must not get treated by a doctor who hasn’t received any medical education in the field of their speciality.
Often people see unprofessional locals to treat their bone issues like fractures and displacements.
So, if you want the best cure for bone and joint issues, always consult the right doctor by ensuring that they have all the qualifications a valid orthopedic doctor must have.
Experience
One of the most important factors is experience. Only an experienced doctor can offer the right diagnosis with the most precise after-diagnosis treatment.
Ensure that the doctor or surgeon, you meet, has at least 5-6 years of experience, which is preferable to be at least 10 years if the concerned doctor is required to perform surgical procedures.
Testimonials
It is also important. Don’t ignore this aspect. When an orthopedic doctor offers the best treatment, patients appreciate their expertise and work and thus testimonials are important to make decisions.
Testimonials are nothing but statements from people in support of a particular doctor from whom they have already received the best treatment and are satisfied with it.
Such positive and promising testimonials or opinions matter as they help people decide on the best orthopedic specialist for all sorts of bone and joint worries.
Reviews
In the world of the Internet, reviews speak for a medical service provider’s credentials. If a doctor has a lot of bad reviews, then nobody will like to book an appointment with them for any medical advice.
Furthermore, positive reviews help find the best bone specialist in the field. However, don’t trust reviews right away. Sometimes, reviews are self-made to build up a fake reputation to induce trust within the hearts of people who are searching for service providers online for the first time. Also sometimes patients also put negative reviews to express their dissatisfaction.
In such cases, you need to go through most of the reviews both negative and positive to make a wise decision. Try to know more about the doctor and its patients. See if the doctor or any health specialist can offer you to connect to their previous patients who have been cured by them.
Referrals
If you are part of an extended family, that is good. Talk to your family members. Even don’t ignore distant relatives. Discuss your issues with them and see if they can suggest the right orthopedic doctors for your issues.
This is the most trusted way to connect to a doctor as you can trust your family any time. Furthermore, if possible, go and talk to your neighbours and old friends. Or, give them a call to enquire about the same. Who knows if they might have had to see an orthopedic specialist in the past themselves?
This option offers more than that. If you visit a bone specialist through a person you already know, the same person will also educate you on the procedures of the clinic you are being referred to.
Otherwise, when you find a doctor on your own, you have to do all the hard work yourself to understand everything. Besides, you also have the following ways to get referred to the best orthopedic doctors near you.
Leverage your social media accounts
Today, everybody is connected to each other more than ever. Thanks to the Internet of Things, especially social networking sites.
So, if you stay active on sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc, use these online platforms to search for the best orthopedic bone and joint doctors.
This is the best way to connect to a renowned specialist as good doctors always have great online visibility on social media.
Put online directories to good use
You will find websites that offer listing services to other businesses on the internet. Such websites are called directories.
Businessmen or people in medical, legal or other professions use these portals to share their contact and address details with the world at large. It enables them to get in touch with the prospective people who are looking for the services they offer.
JustDial, Lybrate, Sulekha, etc are some of the examples of such sites. You can simply utilise these portals via Googling. Search for the best orthopedic doctors and Google will inform you of the best bone and joint specialist within reach.
Consider Quora
It is a website that promotes a culture where people can post questions, expecting replies from those who know the best answers. This is the most beneficial way of getting the information you desperately need in time!
Hence, to find the best orthopedic specialist, go through the already posted questions and answers on Quora. It could help find the best doctor nearby because there is a pretty good chance that many people might have already gone through the same situation you are in right now.
If you don’t find any relevant Qs and As, write your own question there. And, mostly, you get your reply within a reasonable time.
These are the most effective ways to make the best use of the Internet and find the doctor you need for your bone and joint issues.
Fellowships
After everything discussed above, you can also consider this factor. A fellowship is a training period which a doctor receives after completing a speciality training program. During this period, the medical practitioner is known as a fellow.
If an orthopedic doctor has received their fellowship from renowned medical universities of the world, this is the best thing you can come across. However, there are only a handful of medical specialists or surgeons who get the chance to earn their fellowship in a foreign country.
Online Visibility
The Internet has made our lives much easier. So, when looking for a good orthopedic specialist or the best knee replacement hospital in Delhi, make sure you pay attention to online visibility.
To ensure this factor, see that any doctor you want to consult must be present on the internet. If a bone doctor is present on all social networking platforms, or at least on Facebook and Instagram, it is a good sign of online visibility.
Besides, if a doctor promotes their expertise, speciality, and experiences via a website, it also adds to the reputation of the doctor in question.
Hospitals
Good orthopedic surgeons or doctors are always associated with a number of medical institutions. This is the place where doctors consult patients other than their personal clinic but perform surgeries. Hospitals equipped with state of the art facilities can provide the best care to the patients treated there.
Thus, if possible, try to find out how many hospitals an orthopedic doctor is working with so that if needed you can go under any surgical procedures at your chosen place.
Location
The location of the place where a doctor sits for medical services is also a crucial consideration in determining whether it is located at your close proximity or not. If a doctor sits in a nearby location, it will be a lot more convenient for you than otherwise in the case of a distant location.
However, it is also a hard truth that sometimes for good doctors you might have to travel long distances because, ultimately, diagnosis and treatment from experienced and competent doctors will help you recover at the earliest.
Insurance
Finally, let’s talk about insurance. You might have bought some sort of health insurance. If yes, you must also give it enough consideration. Sometimes, the doctor you might have been scheduled to see won’t accept payment through insurance claims.
In that case, you will end up wasting a lot of time and money. So, always ensure in the first place that you connect to an orthopedic doctor that can accept the insurance claim money as a payment in exchange for the treatment you will receive.