New Poll: What Do You Think About Doctors?

I challenge, poke, disagree, argue, advocate, fuss about the bad eggs but as a class of people, physicians are the closest we humans have come to superheroes.

REALLY, really, really, really glad to see you nice folks awake and opinionated on healthcare reform, EHR, transparency, interactive healthcare, social messaging healthcare issues.

This is the worst of it. Stay with us patients in the revolt and together we’ll get healthcare access and coverage worked out.

Thanks for what you do, Doc Rob and all your colleagues. Sleep well. It’s a good thing you do.

At last; a site where no-one is talking about old pop singers!!

What, no “I think doctors are the closest to Olympian gods we’ll get to before the aliens come back to raise us out of our ignorance and make as all supermen”?

Dr. Rob, you’re doing a great job. Keep up the fight.

I couldn’t resist selecting the “stacked end-to-end” one, but in seriousness I think…
Doctors are fabulous. They’ve worked hard to gain their qualifications and we really couldn’t do without them. I think some doctors don’t listen enough or really trust their patients or are a bit arrogant, but I think those doctors are in the minority and you just hear about them more because people go and rant on the internet about them.
I also think that they’re human, for heaven’s sake!, and that some people have unreasonable expectations of them.

even tho i checked “they don’t listen….” i guess i really will have to agree with Chloe.

my mom just died, so i will not have to deal with her frustrating docs anymore.

Some are good, many not so much.

My biggest gripes:

1) Many doctors went into medicine because they want to do good — and therefore fail to appreciate the value of being detail-oriented in things like histories and providing instructions. I hate it when doctors just make things up.
2) Many doctors are not team players and expect patients to do their “technical talking” with other physicians for them. I am not a telephone.
3) Many doctors are indecisive. There is a cost to a “wait and see” approach when I am not feeling well – I can’t get that time feeling crappy and missing out on things back. So don’t just fumble around hoping I’ll get worse so that your decision making process is easier.
4) Doctors way overvalue the worth of the “facts” that they know and well undervalue the worth of strong analytic skills and experience. That is what you bring to the table that is worth your pay — google can easily replace your repository of factoids. If you practice as if all you bring to the table is your ability to look at a lab result and read it to me, don’t be surprised if you get a reimbursement rate of $15 for that encounter. There isn’t much value added there and you don’t deserve more than that. If you take the time to put that lab work into context to come up with an action plan and implement that plan to get results … that is a different thing and actually a professional service.
5) Respect the role of my other doctors and make sure that I know about all abnormal (or close to abnormal) test results. A test result you may consider to be no big deal may be (and for me has been) a big deal to another doc who is prescribing me something where that lab shows an early problem.
6) If you don’t trust your patients with what you think, why should they trust your opinion?
7) Realize that for most patients, seeing the doctor is about as pleasant as well … it’s just not someplace that most people really want to be. So respect that we want to get our business done and not see you again for awhile.

I have loved my general practitioners. They both were/are super intelligent, good listeners, very understanding, and well-trained. I think I ended up with such good doctors because both of them are friends of our family. Unfortunately, the very gifts and talents that make them good doctors also make them distinctly bad at getting along with insurance companies, and one of them quit general practice completely. I’m still not sure how the other one manages insurance companies, Medicare, and the gov’t.- I’ve long suspected that his compassion and care for patients puts him at odds with the contemporary model of a “health care practitioner”.

Because of severe (and I mean honest-to-goodness, not-faking-it-to-get-drugs) migraines, I’ve run into to plenty of specialists. I’ve been to doctors who treated me as if I were an inanimate lump of dirt- with an IQ to match. I’ve had doctors that I’ve gone on to specifically warn others against due to harsh attitudes and deliberate dismissals of my questions or comments. Fortunately, I have also been to doctors who were the epitome of what a neurologist should be. My current neurologist is not only ridiculously brilliant, but he’s not afraid to admit when he doesn’t know something and needs some time to research. He listens to my questions and encourages me to do research- even directing me to the best journals, websites, or books. He doesn’t skirt around hard issues, but manages to always speak with kindness.

The one common thing among all my really good doctors: I like them AND respect them.