Turf Doc, I'll give you a brief rundown of the players on this thread bpgreen has a native prairie grass lawn in the Salt Lake City area. He is active on other forums but a lot of these players have been chased away by the forum's previous owner(s). TexasWeed was a sod farmer north of Dallas. You indicated on another post that you knew who he was. Now he's retired from that biz and is a greens keeper in Prescott, AZ. He's off all the forums. Andy has a poa plantation mixed with KBG and possibly fescue in New York somewhere. He reads soil tests on another forum and occasionally pops up here. dchall_san_antonio: I'm in and about San Antonio. I was in George West for a couple years and have been in Bandera, now, for about 18 months. My daughter's at Southwestern in Georgetown and my training hq is in Round Rock so don't be surprised if I look you up and stop in for a visit. compiler: We never did find out anything about him/her. It's important to know where the people live to give any good advice. I think the assumption was made that the OP had bermuda. Don't know why that was assumed, so I asked the questions. Sure, tissue sample testing would be nice. You really should correlate the plant uptake with the soil chemistry, but that's fairly impractical at this point. It took some considerable time and effort to locate Logan Labs in Ohio for high quality, reliable soil testing. Even the Texas Plant and Soil Lab did not make it through the ad hoc test of the testing labs, and those guys are geniuses with plants and soils. The $25 test from Logan Labs is considerably more and better than the old $35 test at TPSL back when K was alive. Now that K's passed on the new management has fragmented the tests so it would cost $60 or more to get what Logan Labs gives, and the TPSL explanations are less informative.

I think it's really difficult anymore and I am a nurse (well, retired now). I've known some dr's who had lots of personality & pt's loved them, but from my observations would guess they might have graduated at the bottom of their class. And likewise I've seen dr's who were absent the day personality & communications skills were passed out, but their clinical expertise was superb. I suppose a recommendation from a friend, another dr, nurse, or medical professional is ~~probably~~ the best way to find a new dr. (but just be sure s/he is on your insurance plan). I think it's important to look to see if the Dr is "Board Certified"... it indicates a higher level of expertise, whether Family Practice or Internal Medicine (& either is fine, imo). I also prefer that my PCP be in a group practice rather than solo practice. When an emergency arises, I want someone who can access my records. Interestingly, my former PCP (internal med dr) did not, as a rule do the Pap smears & vag exam. You had to go to a Nurse Practitioner who was with another associate in their organization. I personally thought this was ridiculous ... I want a "one stop shop". LOL. My dr left that practice & moved elsewhere & I haven't yet been to the dr who took his place, so I don't know if that is still the case.

They are called PRIMARY care because, in theory, they are overseeing, coordinating, and managing your overall care. Your PCP should have received from all the consultants their recommendations addressing each of their bits of turf. He/she should also be able to access the discharge summaries or sign off notes from the hospital to see what each recommended. If he doesn't know or can't find the information in the paperwork/records, he should be making the effort to contact the specialist himself. Also, I thought it was a NATIONAL standard of care (and regulatory requirement) that on discharge, in the discharge instructions given to you, each of your pre-admission medications are reviewed and instructions given whether to stop taking, change the dose or frequency, or resume/continue taking -- along with all new medications prescribed in the hospital. The only exception would be if they somehow didn't know about this medication, or perhaps if it is a medication that needs to be stopped for an interval during recovery but should be resumed later -- but the discharge paper should tell you to contact such and so MD for followup on that. I'd be looking for a new PCP. I am amazed at the responses from the office staffs of all 3, each passing the buck. (I give the discharge nurse a break, she really wouldn't have the means to know or find out for you now. That instruction needs to come from an MD.) I think going to the stroke center is a good idea, although I wonder if you can get plugged into a new provider for follow-up, having already been through another system (some systems can be odd about that). I'm responding several days late, so I hope you have had good luck with your calls.

Up to five years ago we had family in Switzerland and while visiting them my husband often had to make appointments with a family doctor, usually to update some medication. Occasionally to check something that worried us. When entering the office we gave our info to the receptionist, then went to the waiting room. The doctor himself came to the waiting room and invited us into his office. In the large office was his very nice desk -- an antique? I don't know, very solid and elegant. Some paintings on the wall, very comfortable. He sat at the desk and we talked about whatever the issues were. At the other side of the room was the examining table. The doctor did the whatever examination was called for -- oh, blood pressure and hands on check up. Some of the blood tests could be done in an adjacent office. I'm sure the doctor kept track of the time. He would escort us out of his office and say something to the Secretary which would be the amount of time to be charged. There was never any hurry or overbooking. It was never an outrageous fee I can tell you that. We never felt rushed. We didn't use travel insurance and occasionally the fee would be as much as 60 dollars. It's been five years since the last visit and I doubt anything has changed. This may have been the same in North America at one time. When?