Availability can be a Catch-22. Many of the most popular doctors have established a large patient base, and their schedule is booked four to six months in advance. In this case, even if the doctor you select is the most convenient and compatible around, you'll probably never see him because of his busy schedule. If his schedule doesn't accommodate your needs, the kind of rapport you strike up with each other is irrelevant.

Office Hours

Not only does the doctor have to be available, he has to be available at a time that is convenient to you. It doesn't matter if his schedule means his office is open from nine to five if you have to be at work during those hours. If your only free time is after five, when this particular doctor has already stopped seeing patients, you'll never get to see him. You probably will end up seeing his colleagues most of the time. This defeats the purpose of carefully picking your doctor out of the crowd in the first place.

Call the office to get some ideas of office hours and a given doctor's availability. Not all doctors work regular hours. Some routinely work late once or twice a week, and that could work in your favor.

Your doctor may be great, but if he only works three days a week and takes four month-long vacations a year, you may find yourself stranded most of the time. Ideally, you should find out this information not only from the office staff, but from other patients.

After Hours

For many parents, a pediatrician's availability after hours is a deal breaker when it comes to choosing their child's doctor. In the past, when private practices were the norm, most doctors took calls daily. This meant that patients could count on reaching their doctor in case they had an urgent question, even after the office was closed.

With a changing health-care system and the proliferation of group practices, this easy availability of doctors has become a rarity. Large organizations such as hospitals and clinics usually set up a telephone nurse triage system that parents can use to get most general questions answered at any time of day or night. However, this service does not provide the personalized care of the old system. The person on the other end of the phone does not know the subtle nuances of your child's health condition in the way your own pediatrician does.

Inquire about the on-call system and the availability of the doctor when you are shopping for a practice. This could mean the difference between a delay in treatment or an unnecessary trip to the emergency room.

Even if your pediatrician does not provide after-hours care, she can usually recommend several local urgent-care facilities as alternatives. Some of these neighborhood urgent-care clinics are actually underused because they are not widely publicized.

If you do not have medical insurance, there are still options available for you, although your selection is more limited. There are some government-sponsored clinics that stay open after hours on certain weekdays. These might not be located in your neighborhood, so you may have to drive farther to reach them. Once again, your pediatrician is the most knowledgeable person you can ask for information about any clinics that might be located near your neighborhood.