Sorry to hear about the negative experience. When helping a family member through some health problems long ago, I learned that many of the primary care doctors that are easiest to get into are also some of the worst for dealing with complex problems. It makes sense when you think about it - Doctors who provide poor care or who assume the worst from the patients are the least likely to retain patients and therefore the most likely to have openings.
What worked for us was finding a primary care doctor who was recommended by others, even if the wait for a new patient appointment was measured in months or years. From there, the PCP was used as a pivot point to get to specialists who knew what they were doing and as a contact point for basic medication management. Letting PCPs try to manage complex conditions is a mistake, IMO.
I should mention that this failure mode isn't unique to American medicine. The same dynamic plays out in many countries and indeed in many industries beyond medicine. Getting into the experts who know what they're doing is hard because they're in the highest demand. Getting into below-average providers of any profession is always easy because they're not buried under referrals and people knocking on their door.
What worked for us was finding a primary care doctor who was recommended by others, even if the wait for a new patient appointment was measured in months or years. From there, the PCP was used as a pivot point to get to specialists who knew what they were doing and as a contact point for basic medication management. Letting PCPs try to manage complex conditions is a mistake, IMO.
I should mention that this failure mode isn't unique to American medicine. The same dynamic plays out in many countries and indeed in many industries beyond medicine. Getting into the experts who know what they're doing is hard because they're in the highest demand. Getting into below-average providers of any profession is always easy because they're not buried under referrals and people knocking on their door.