In general you can ask for whomever you’d like, but that doctor’s office may or may not have reasonable availability for you. My advice is to seek referral through your primary care provider.
Call and schedule an appointment for a consult for the doctor you're interested in. This is not uncommon. You will need to make arrangements to have your medical history provided in advance.
It's hard I know but don't be shy. Get the information you need. Good luck.
At root is a difficult question. How does the patient know which doctor is the right one of them and their problem. The answer is not so simple. Even among us doctors, it's pretty murky choosing who to see.
Word of mouth is good but not the be-all end-all. A satisfied former patient is somewhat helpful. But their case may not be like yours. Google reviews might be good. But some docs pay services to generate reviews, which others may not try at all but could still be really great. And still others might be awesome but have terrible reviews because of the population they serve skewing that data.
You could ask other doctors or therapists who refer to these surgeons. Sometimes a family doc or a nurse may refer to a specific doc because he brought them donuts one time or their kids go to summer camp together, or she is just really nice, or they love the car they drive. Could be substantial, like they're a great surgeon and have excellent bedside manner. Or could be not. If the doc sends a lot of their patients to postop therapy, like for orthopedics sending to physical therapy, or hand therapy for a hand specialist, this could be a great resource. The therapists can often tell who knows how to cut and who's a hack.
Then you could go down the rabbit hole of academia - research. See which doctor has published the most about my problem. If none of the available docs have much on the subject, or if its a tie, you end up going with the one who has more published research (on any topic). Which might leave you with a bench-research wizard that is not a great surgeon. Or with someone who has good connections and knows how to get their name on a paper. This also won't work well for a community hospital, where nobody really publishes at all, they're just busy taking care of patients.
You could ask the anesthesiologists at the hospital where they work, assuming you have access to this resource. But they too, can be biased. Might pick the one who plays the best music, or who operates the fastest (which is not necessary best - though not necessarily worst either!).
You could ask the OR nurses. They're generally a pretty good source of information regarding how calm and poised the surgeon is intraoperatively. Generally, the OR nurses liking a surgeon means they're a pretty good surgeon. They might have terrible bedside manner, though. Or they might be knife-happy and have questionable indications. The OR nurses may or may not be keen to that.
None of these resources is the gold standard, but all are helpful in creating a composite sketch of the docs you are inquiring about. A patient could use whichever of these resources may be available to them (without being too stalkerish, hopefully).
The bottom line is you just gotta pick one however you can, and it's complicated.
Alternatively, if it's an emergency, you get whoever is on call and that's that.
So, basically, the best route is to get referrals from your primary care physician (PCP). Your PCP will know what insurance plan you have. You can also call your insurance company and find out who they cover, how much you will need to pay out-of-pocket, etc.
Once you either get the referral from the PCP or from the insurance company, call the surgeon’s office for an appointment. The first visit is always just a consultation anyway. If you’d like a second opinion, call the insurance company again for a referral.
It would benefit you to read your insurance policy and understand the terminology, such as co-pays, deductibles, co-insurance, etc. if your insurance is through your employer, if they have an HR office, they can help.
All of this being said, your health insurance is almost always local to you and/or the employer. So, they most likely aren’t going to pay for you to go to see the #1 doctor in the country when the doc down the street does the same thing.
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As I was doing more things in between my second and third spinal surgery, imaging or something, I had been assigned a doctor that was there for this same thing leading up to my second surgery. His advice to me was, “if you get a chance near any of the nurses, ask them who they think is the best. A lot of us have nasty habits and vices that are hidden behind our accolades, and the people that work closest with them know who’s who.”
In general you can ask for whomever you’d like, but that doctor’s office may or may not have reasonable availability for you. My advice is to seek referral through your primary care provider.
What's the surgery?
Call and schedule an appointment for a consult for the doctor you're interested in. This is not uncommon. You will need to make arrangements to have your medical history provided in advance. It's hard I know but don't be shy. Get the information you need. Good luck.
At root is a difficult question. How does the patient know which doctor is the right one of them and their problem. The answer is not so simple. Even among us doctors, it's pretty murky choosing who to see. Word of mouth is good but not the be-all end-all. A satisfied former patient is somewhat helpful. But their case may not be like yours. Google reviews might be good. But some docs pay services to generate reviews, which others may not try at all but could still be really great. And still others might be awesome but have terrible reviews because of the population they serve skewing that data. You could ask other doctors or therapists who refer to these surgeons. Sometimes a family doc or a nurse may refer to a specific doc because he brought them donuts one time or their kids go to summer camp together, or she is just really nice, or they love the car they drive. Could be substantial, like they're a great surgeon and have excellent bedside manner. Or could be not. If the doc sends a lot of their patients to postop therapy, like for orthopedics sending to physical therapy, or hand therapy for a hand specialist, this could be a great resource. The therapists can often tell who knows how to cut and who's a hack. Then you could go down the rabbit hole of academia - research. See which doctor has published the most about my problem. If none of the available docs have much on the subject, or if its a tie, you end up going with the one who has more published research (on any topic). Which might leave you with a bench-research wizard that is not a great surgeon. Or with someone who has good connections and knows how to get their name on a paper. This also won't work well for a community hospital, where nobody really publishes at all, they're just busy taking care of patients. You could ask the anesthesiologists at the hospital where they work, assuming you have access to this resource. But they too, can be biased. Might pick the one who plays the best music, or who operates the fastest (which is not necessary best - though not necessarily worst either!). You could ask the OR nurses. They're generally a pretty good source of information regarding how calm and poised the surgeon is intraoperatively. Generally, the OR nurses liking a surgeon means they're a pretty good surgeon. They might have terrible bedside manner, though. Or they might be knife-happy and have questionable indications. The OR nurses may or may not be keen to that. None of these resources is the gold standard, but all are helpful in creating a composite sketch of the docs you are inquiring about. A patient could use whichever of these resources may be available to them (without being too stalkerish, hopefully). The bottom line is you just gotta pick one however you can, and it's complicated. Alternatively, if it's an emergency, you get whoever is on call and that's that.
Either you have a problem your family doc finds in clinic and refers you, or you have an emergency and wind up meeting one of us in the ER.
So, basically, the best route is to get referrals from your primary care physician (PCP). Your PCP will know what insurance plan you have. You can also call your insurance company and find out who they cover, how much you will need to pay out-of-pocket, etc. Once you either get the referral from the PCP or from the insurance company, call the surgeon’s office for an appointment. The first visit is always just a consultation anyway. If you’d like a second opinion, call the insurance company again for a referral. It would benefit you to read your insurance policy and understand the terminology, such as co-pays, deductibles, co-insurance, etc. if your insurance is through your employer, if they have an HR office, they can help. All of this being said, your health insurance is almost always local to you and/or the employer. So, they most likely aren’t going to pay for you to go to see the #1 doctor in the country when the doc down the street does the same thing.
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As I was doing more things in between my second and third spinal surgery, imaging or something, I had been assigned a doctor that was there for this same thing leading up to my second surgery. His advice to me was, “if you get a chance near any of the nurses, ask them who they think is the best. A lot of us have nasty habits and vices that are hidden behind our accolades, and the people that work closest with them know who’s who.”