This whole subject of choosing an AME you can trust is a tricky business. When you're a young guy, you don't give much thought to "filling the squares" (I didn't ).
When you reach a certain age, your mortality becomes more apparent to you and your feelings about an interaction on which your earning capacity depends will take a whole new meaning. You really need someone you're comfortable with and who'll pull up a chair and chat with you.
Recommendations from your pilot buddies are king.
Like everyone else, for many years I went to the local, and sometimes too-busy, GPs who did physicals for the easy money because I didn't expect to need someone to guide me through the process and overcome serious snags. As time went on, I became increasingly uneasy with these guys after hearing a couple of horror stories about Nursy-Lursy putting some incorrect info on the form, busy doc not catching the error, and the guy ending up in a heck of a mess due to false info (you know the Feds: guilty until you prove yourself innocent).
These docs are probably good guys but they just don't "get it" when it comes to what these physicals really mean to a pilot. Beware the doc whose butt never touches a chair during your time in his office.
I asked around and found a guy who'd been a Korean War fighter pilot before becoming a doc, owned a couple of airplanes, and really knew the score in dealing with the Feds. And, he'd been at it so long the Feds knew HIM.
Well, he quit practising so I had to find another one. Found a guy here who has spent his whole career as a pilot doc in the airline industry, is well known to the Feds in OKC, and will know exactly how to deal with them if needed. This guy is worth his weight in gold.
He's getting up there in years but is still doing only pilot physicals (apparently like the doc who posts here on jetcareers)..and filling out the paperwork himself.
Fortunately, I retired before he did but he did help me out of one fairly major snag some years back. The ALPA docs are good guys but they're 1000 miles away; you need someone across the desk when your medical is up for grabs.
It's a shame that it takes so long for these guys to get so good at the game...and next thing you know, they're not practising anymore. :laff: