what's the point of choosing a primary Dr. at SGF?

[Anonymous]

I've had my initial consultation with the Dr. I chose, and I saw her once at my mock transfer, but other than that I have not spoken to her, she did not do my egg retrieval, and I was just told she won't be the one doing my actual transfer either...is this normal for SGF or have others have some continuity of care with one provider? I have not actually ever met my assigned nurse in person either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've had my initial consultation with the Dr. I chose, and I saw her once at my mock transfer, but other than that I have not spoken to her, she did not do my egg retrieval, and I was just told she won't be the one doing my actual transfer either...is this normal for SGF or have others have some continuity of care with one provider? I have not actually ever met my assigned nurse in person either.

Your primary doctor is setting your treatment protocol and making decisions about changes to protocol. All larger clinics operate this way. With smaller clinic, they also usually operate this way (one on call doctor performing procedures) but since there are fewer doctors you are more likely to see your doctor more often.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've had my initial consultation with the Dr. I chose, and I saw her once at my mock transfer, but other than that I have not spoken to her, she did not do my egg retrieval, and I was just told she won't be the one doing my actual transfer either...is this normal for SGF or have others have some continuity of care with one provider? I have not actually ever met my assigned nurse in person either.

Your primary doctor is setting your treatment protocol and making decisions about changes to protocol. All larger clinics operate this way. With smaller clinic, they also usually operate this way (one on call doctor performing procedures) but since there are fewer doctors you are more likely to see your doctor more often.

Yeah, I guess it's just frustrating that for the actual critical procedures you don't have a say in who your doctor is. I had my retrieval yesterday and the doctor they assigned me had a very weird bedside manner and just did not seem to give AF at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've had my initial consultation with the Dr. I chose, and I saw her once at my mock transfer, but other than that I have not spoken to her, she did not do my egg retrieval, and I was just told she won't be the one doing my actual transfer either...is this normal for SGF or have others have some continuity of care with one provider? I have not actually ever met my assigned nurse in person either.

Your primary doctor is setting your treatment protocol and making decisions about changes to protocol. All larger clinics operate this way. With smaller clinic, they also usually operate this way (one on call doctor performing procedures) but since there are fewer doctors you are more likely to see your doctor more often.

This is how GW worked when I was a patient there in 2017-2018 (they had 4 doctors at the time), but then I switched to Dominion and found out that you see your own doctor for as many of your procedures as possible. So no, not all smaller clinics work that way.

[Anonymous]

Patients’ periods start every day, the doctors have to be ready for procedure seven days a week, so they need a rotation schedule. This is the same for your Obestricians when you get pregnant. Nobody knows when the baby might come so your primary OB might not be the one delivers. On my OB clinic they cycle you through all the OB during pregnancy for you to get to know all of them, because you might end up with any one of them.

[Anonymous]

Are you at one of the larger SGF offices, OP? I was at a much smaller "home" office (Leesburg) with just one RE, and I saw Dr Khan and/or my assigned nurse at almost every appointment (beyond just the quick blood draws). I actually lucked out that he was one of the REs scheduled for procedures the day I had my ER. I had multiple IUIs and FETs, though, and they were almost always done by a different RE.

I find it odd that you aren't having more contact with your assigned nurse, though.

[Anonymous]

I see Dr. Doyle at SGF Rockville, and he did my transfer. He normally does the retrievals for his patients too, but he had a personal conflict and told me in advance that he couldn’t make it (and apologized profusely, which I appreciated but certainly didn’t expect). I have never met my nurse in person though. I don’t really mind since she is extremely responsive through the portal and phone calls. I think it varies by doctor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Patients’ periods start every day, the doctors have to be ready for procedure seven days a week, so they need a rotation schedule. This is the same for your Obestricians when you get pregnant. Nobody knows when the baby might come so your primary OB might not be the one delivers. On my OB clinic they cycle you through all the OB during pregnancy for you to get to know all of them, because you might end up with any one of them.

NP. Interestingly, I didn’t mind the rotation for my pregnancies, but I wouldn’t have liked that for my IVF cycles at all. IVF has a lot lower success rate than childbirth! I liked CCRM, where there were only two MDs so they both knew me pretty well.