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After moving from Chicago to Dallas for a new job, Teresa Santos had moved into her new apartment and got to know her new neighborhood, but she soon realized that she didn’t have a doctor. Without knowing a single person in her new town, she couldn’t rely on a referral to find a provider so she set out on a search for a new doctor on her own.

Santos started by find out what providers accepted her insurance in her proximity, but wisely felt that such cursory research just wasn’t enough in making such an important choice. After whittling down her choice to a few providers, she dug deeper and found that none of her potential doctors had disciplinary history and that they all were recommended highly by other patients so she looked at their basic information. It immediately occurred to her that the medical school that the doctors attended could be a good indicator of their ability, but like many consumers Santos was wrong.

According to many experts, basing a doctor choice on the medical school they attended is not one of the factors that people should consider when making a doctor choice. Medical schools are largely academic bookwork courses with very little hands on practice. It is akin to reading a book on how to fly a plane and believing you can then immediately get in a plane and fly it. What is more important, according to experts, are where doctors practiced their internships and residencies.

 “The residency is where you get your hands-on experience and get your feet wet,” says James Reed, M.D., a private practice internist in Virginia and an assistant professor at Georgetown University. “In my opinion, you learn more during your one year as a medical intern than you do during four years of medical school.”

After graduating medical school, doctors must perform a one year internship (sometimes referred to as their first year of residency) and then three more years of residency before going on to obtain their medical practicing license. While there are different types of residencies, a general residency usually requires a resident to make rounds to check test results and see how people are responding to treatments. A residency also allows a person to rotate through many specialties or through different areas in one specialty. Usually after the first year of residency, a resident concentrates more heavily on their particular specialty.

Instead of looking at medical school, consumers should look for doctors who have a broad range of residency experience as they generally have more experience seeing a wide range of patients and medical issues. For example, a doctor who has had residence in multiple atmospheres like a large public hospital, a VA facility, and a private institution has likely seen a larger range of issues in their patient dealings than someone who has solely had a residency in a private institution. Many hospitals, like workplaces, have different cultures and paces, so a doctor who had had residency in two or three different hospitals is also likely to be better experienced.

In addition to looking at residencies, consumers should also look for recommendations on doctors as their current patients are a good indicator of what kind of treatment you’ll receive. Many experts also recommend private practice doctors over large care facilities as the care will be more personalized simply due to volume considerations. Local private doctors also have their feet to the ground in the local medical community, and can help you navigate through the maze of the medical world and generally will know the best specialists in your area. Of course, people should check to make sure that their doctor has board certification, and publications and fellowships also are a great indicator of knowledge and understanding.