PROCEDURES FOR A PHYSICAL

Recently, our family doctor left her practice and it was taken over by another doctor (had never known of him prior). I just had my first physical with him. Compared to all the other physicals I've had in my life (and I try to have them yearly)...it was "different". There were 3 things that this doctor didn't do that have always been done up to now:
1) He did not want me to provide a urine sample.
2) He didn't do the test where my testicles are felt and I am told to cough.(hernia?)
3) He didn't want to perform a rectal exam (I am 56).

When I asked him about these things, he said for item:
1) Young doctors do not do that anymore, and anything that a urine sample would indicate would show up in the blood test (that I did get orders for). But my previous doctor was younger than him.
2) I didn't ask him...I realized it after I left that he didn't do this.
3) He said since I had had a colonoscopy 6 years before (it was OK so I was told I didn't need another for 10 years), he didn't need to do it. Again, my previous doctor did do this.

I left feeling that it was not a thorough exam. In fact, my wife went to him for a physical a month before and he didn't even look in her ears and throat.

Should I be concerned? Should I find another doctor?

[SixStringer]

Yes, before the time for your next checkup rolls around, get another doctor, transferring all of your records, sticking within your insurance list for PPOs, if you have one.    

[caregiver222]

First of all, I am very critical of physicians who do not come up to a proper standard.

On the other hand, your post is full of "missing pieces" and I am hesitant to condemn this fellow, or state he has performed negligently.

He may have been a bit busy, but failure to give a proctoscopic examination, despite the interval since your last exam, is hardly grounds to bring him before a firing squad.

One of the problems in medicine is the high cost of unnecessary "cover-your-behind" tests.

When you say he "took bloodwork", you don't specify the tests.

One of the most important things is to feel comfortable with your physician. For various reasons this does not seem to be the case.

It's a free country (last I heard), and if you feel the differences are irreconcilable, find another doctor.

[bdb]

I appreciate your response, but please don't make it sound like I'm throwing the guy under the bus (condemn; firing squad?). I was just looking for someone more knowledgeable than I am who knows something about the "standard operating procedures" for physical exams.

Judging from the patients in the waiting room, he couldn't have been that busy, and I certainly wouldn't cut him any slack for a reason like that...not after waiting close to a year for an appt.

Don't know what's right, don't know what's wrong. I only have all my previous years of physical exams to go by. I've always given a urine sample, had a rectal exam (which I believe is important for a 56 year old guy), and had to turn my head and cough. Also, keep in mind that when my wife went for her first physical with our new doctor (about a month ago), he didn't even look in her ears and throat.

I'm not looking to condemn or shoot him, just tyring to find a good doctor.

[caregiver222]

If I were evaluating a physician I would observe whether or not he:

(1) takes orthostatic vital signs
(2) auscultates lung quadrants, anterior and posterior, four quadrants
(3) takes dorsalis pedis pulses in both feet
(4) asks me to say "ah" (he is observing the tongue)
(5) puts light in both eyes and observes pupils
(6) provides me with raw copies of all lab results without me asking (mine mails them to me)
(7) will see me within 4 weeks, at the most
(8) has a hospital affiliation I am confortable with