Marci,
Just my 2cents on the affilitations thing. I am a bit familiar with this because the pulmonologist in our area who has an outstanding reputation and is whom my husband went to, I have gone to and my mom goes to, only goes to one hospital. What this means is if the patient gets sent to or goes to another hospital , the doctor won't make rounds or go see her there. That is a problem in my opinion because my experience has been that the pulmonoloigst is the one who is the doctor in charge, most of the times, the patient goes to the hospital with respiratory symptoms. This means iif the patient is in the hospital they won't have the care of their own doctor. In my opnion it is something you have to consider. Hope this makes sense and the bottom line is you might want to make sure that the doctor she has is available to her ALWAYS. My best to you and your mom.
Sue