What type of doctor/office/healthcare system does the most in depth physical exams?

Hi guys.

I have gotten physicals exams recently, but they weren’t really all that advanced. I just got an employment physical… they did nothing. It seems recently, there has been less and less. Anyway, I voted to a new state so I need to change my doctor.

What type of doctors (MD, Family Physicians, General Doctors, etc) typically do the most thorough exams? Do certain ones typically do more in depth exams?

Do doctors in a hospital setting or individual practice do better physical exams?

Are gowns still popular in doctors offices?

Employment physicals are a list of medical conditions the customer (an employer) wants the doctor to check potential employees for. Due to privacy issues, a doctor should not offer any information outside that list to the employer.

Anyone wanting a physical should communicate with the doctor and tell them what is desired, what the doctor recommends, etc. In short, have a conversation with the doctor so you are comfortable with the number and scope of tests to be performed and what the doctor/practice will do with that information.

Internal medicine doctors do the most thorough exams. I’ve found that hospital based practices are better. And yes gowns are still popular.

As a retired internist I agree we are trained to perform the most thorough physical on adults. Gowns certainly remain important because supporting modesty is a professional imperative. As to office versus hospital based, I'd have to say it really depends on the doctor.

My current internist provides the most comprehensive annual physical I can recall. A gown is offered but I decline. I’m in underwear for most of the time until the final part when it comes off for a skin check. Then he exits, I get dressed, and we talk in his office.

Internist who are more old school give the most thorough physicals.

I believe that Internal Medicine does more for the adult than the General Practitioner. This is my opinion. I have been going to Internal Med doctors since I was 20 something. Normally, most check-ups are simple: weight, height, BP, blood sample and urine sample. This normally is done by the nurse. The nurse then advises to undress to your underwear and if you want to have a gown I can get one. I decline the gown and just sit in my underwear on the exam table.

I did have a past doctor who's nurse just advised to have a seat in the chair and wait for the Doctor. Doctor came into the room and looked over my chart(pre-internet era) and just said:

Robert, just strip to your shorts and hop on the table.

I see a general practitioner who shares a practice with another doc and nurse practitioner. I have only seen him and the exams are thorough. I do not get a gown but strip to my briefs but at some point the briefs are removed for my genital and DRE. I always leave my exam feeling greasy and have no issue with developing an erection as I leave the office.

Haven't seen an Internist but in my experience, it's actually the Nurse Practitioners that give more thorough physicals compared to Family Doctors. NP's are more flexible and I feel like they have more time to spare whereas MD's are always slammed and don't really bother all that much with physicals these days.

From what it seems based on members’ posts here, pediatric officers in the U.S. in the 80s and 90s were the most in depth physical exams between doctors not trusting patients and especially kids and teens and doctors not wanting liability for inadvertently missing something, there seems to have been more manhandling of patients there than anywhere else I’d wager