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In reply to the discussion: Heroin deaths double after painkiller crackdown [View all]Aristus
(66,636 posts)My patients all tell me the same thing: "You listen to me!" Of course I do. I find it a little shocking that their experience with doctors is that MD's don't listen to their patients. My job, indeed, my sworn vocation, is to diagnose and treat illness. The best way to diagnose my patient is by listening to the history of their condition. My instructor for adult medicine in PA School told us that we will be able to get roughly 80% of our diagnoses from the history alone. So, yeah. I listen. A doctor who breezes into the exam room, doesn't even look at the patient, and then breezes right back out two minutes later is practicing bad medicine.
Our productivity goals are increased all the time. (My current quota is 24 patients a day. ) But I take the time as often as I can to assess the patient properly. Not doing so is a prescription for malpractice, followed by lots and lots of lawsuits.