I recently picked Dr. Shushan as my primary care physician when I changed insurances. Mostly, I picked him because of the convenience of his office to where I live. Also, I am a physician at in the Cambridge Health Aliance system, and wanted to go outside that system for my care so that I wouldn't encounter colleagues in the course of obtaining my care, so I picked a practice in the Mount Auburn system.
I saw him for the first time last week, and was very impressed by him. It took a few months to get a new patient appointment with him, but I don't have significant health problems so that was fine. He was prompt and efficient, but quite thorough in his physical exam and review of systems (the part where they ask you questions about headaches, vision, hearing, shortness of breath, cough, etc etc). In the course of my medical training I have seen many physical exams performed on a basically healthy person that were perfunctory at best, but Dr. Shushan was methodical and complete.
He had an easy manner and seemed like a nice guy, so we had a good rapport. He brought up appropriately but did not beat me over the head with what we both knew I could be doing better - diet and exercise. I felt very comfortable entrusting my care to him and if I became ill, I know he'd do a good job and treat me with dignity.
My only minor complaint was with a harried nurse who was a bit short with me. After signing in by the door as a first-time patient with the staff who handled the insurance, they sent me to the waiting room, but didn't tell me I needed to check in with the folks there, so I sat down for a minute or two until a nurse came out and berated me in an annoyed voice, "You need to sign in when you get here!" I hadn't realized you needed to sign in at two separate places. She later calmed down a bit and was nicer to me once I complimented her blood-drawing skills. read more