How to find and deal with doctors.

[knitter4democracy]

I'm often surprised here by the anti-doctor sentiment, though why I'm still surprised by it, I don't know. The reality is, when any of us gets really ill, we need to be treated by doctors.

Not all doctors are Repubs, and more and more docs are in favor of a national health care plan or at least single payer. There are many great doctors out there who work very hard to help their patients get better. No, doctors don't get kickbacks on writing prescriptions for anything, and if you count free pens and sticky notes as bribes, then I guess Pharma tries to bribe them. Free dinners are mostly gone, free trips are gone, and the only things really left are conferences at reduced cost. That said, great doctors are out there trying their best every day to get people healthier.

I hate to say it, but the AMA has a good doctor-finder page. They also include non-members on their list, though their info on Hubby is out of date, so I have to fix that.
http://webapps.ama-assn.org/doctorfinder/html/patient.html

Here's another good search page that's free, though it's not always entirely accurate (they still have Hubby at his old office and don't have his med school for some reason):
http://www.ucomparehealthcare.com/physicians_start.html

Once you find a doctor, there are a few things that will help in your dealing with her and her office.
1. Keep a folder just for your medical stuff. Take notes on whom you spoke with and what was covered. Keep copies of everything they give you. If you can get copies of your file, put them in there, too.

2. Doctors like lists, not stories. Give your doctor a list of your symptoms and when each started. Keep a list of medicines you cannot take, along with reasons why. Keep the list items short, too. It's how they they're trained to think, so you'll help them a lot if you keep your information in list form.

3. Stay calm but firm in your dealings with them. If a doctor doesn't answer your question, stop him, and re-direct him firmly back to your question. If a doctor blows off a concern, stop her, and make it clear that you are quite concerned about that and need her to answer it carefully.

4. If a doctor's office mistreats you in any way, write a letter to the office manager and/or the head of the practice (you can call and ask the front desk people who those are). Give dates, names, and a clear account of what was said, done, and what needs to be done to make it better. If you don't hear back, write another letter asking for feedback.

5. If a doctor treats you badly, enough to cause harm, you need to write a couple of letters. First, you start with the head of the practice. Let that doctor know what happened, and the practice should make it right. If not, then write a letter to the state medical board. In my opinion, suing a doctor isn't as effective as going for his license, but writing to the state medical board is also a good first step for a lawsuit, too. The state board might not do anything, considering how swamped most of them are. Another letter would be to the chief of that specialty at the hospital where the doctor has privileges. The chief is going to want to know if one of his doctors is a menace to the hospital's patients.

6. If you choose not to be compliant (refuse to take a medicine, get a test, or not follow a doctor's orders for any reason), write up your reasoning why and ask to have it put in your file if the doctor doesn't seem to remember it or gets upset about it. For example, if you cannot tolerate the prep for a CT with contrast, you need to write up why and have that put in your file so the doctor knows to try something else to get the results she needs. A good doctor will try another way.

7. Doctors cannot fire patients without giving them time to find a new doctor (usually 30 days), but a patient can fire a doctor with no notice.

8. Just a nicety: if you really are happy with a doctor's care, let him know. My hubby keeps the notes his patients write to thank him to read on bad days in a drawer in his desk. Gifts aren't nearly as appreciated as notes, though food for the breakroom is always well-liked. :)

These are just a few things. Post any others you know of.

[Donnachaidh]

1. try this site

http://www.rateMD.com

The comments are interesting, and you can rate doctors as well.

[Mojorabbit]

7. I found my hubby on that site

He only got a ave 3.5 in punctuality but 5's on everything else. Very nice comments. He spends however long it takes with his patients and sometimes it puts him behind. Cool site, thanks!

[knitter4democracy]

14. No one from our area is on it.

At least, none of the internists are. Odd. It's not just that Hubby didn't come up, it's that none of the internists did. Hmmm . . . I could be bad and rate all of the partners at his former practice who drove him away . . . :evilgrin:

[trof]

29. Just found ratemds.com this morning.

Rated my ENT guy as top notch.
Very interesting site.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Find a doctor who subscribes to the notion

of compassionate listening. My MD does this, and I am very pleased with the fact that she was able to successfully diagnose and treat ailments and chronic conditions that my husband and I have had.

Another place to read and find out about medical care is the American Holistic Medical Association.

http://www.holisticmedicine.org/

[knitter4democracy]

16. Amen to that.

Hubby always says he just listens to his patients and that it's what makes him different. I refuse to stick with a doctor who doesn't listen.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

17. My doc

moved from opthamology to a general holistic practice after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome. She had already felt the need for the change, and when she saw how she was treated in the hospital (including one male health care provider deriding her for breast reconstruction after radical mastectomy because "it was just vanity"), she realized she was right in wanting to change how she treated her patients.

[knitter4democracy]

20. What a jerk. I'm sure he'd want testicular reconstruction.

Most guys do, and they aren't derided as vain. Sheesh! No wonder she made the switch. I'll bet she is a great doctor, too. :)

[Lost-in-FL]

3. I guess you don't work in a hospital

That is why you are surprised that there is such thing as an anti-doctor sentiment.

[Kingshakabobo]

8. LOL

My boyfriend used to work with/for brain surgeons.....the people he worked for were the biggest bunch of rude, egotistical, sexist/racist/homophobic jerk-offs you will ever meet. That said, two of the kindest people I know and love dearly are GPs...One Doc friend was one of the New Orleans docs that set up an infirmary while trapped in a N.O. hotel during a conference (there was a story on CNN).

Not to mention my personal Doc who I love to death.

I guess it takes all kinds.

[Lost-in-FL]

10. Yup...

You usually know how good a doctor is by measuring the size of his ego.

At least they treat their patients (now a days they are called customers) better than they treat those who work around them. But in the hospital setting is different. They keep their inpatiens waiting for days before they come and talk to them. They order one exam after the other and don't even read the results on time. That is why IMO health care is so expensive because patients are kept longer than they need to and because sometimes exams are repeated just because the doctor never read the result of the prior study. But hey... those frivolous lawsuits :sarcasm:.

I have worked with kind, sweet, and very professional doctors but the experience with the bad ones are so sour that you use that ruler to measure all of them.

My primary doctor is very nice and very sharp and to the point (and still able to listen to you!), but the staff is horrible. I am in the process of looking for another doctor cause of his staff.

[knitter4democracy]

13. Hubby's not on-call this weekend but is rounding anyway.

He's the only one in the practice who covers that hospital, so he's rounding during the kids' naptime today and feels bad that he's made everyone wait until the afternoon, but I'm still ill and fighting a couple of things.

Oh, and I just can't stand a bad office staff. I'm firing my GI doc for that. His staff drives me crazy, and he's not that nice, either. Hubby's not going to refer to him anymore, either. ;)

[knitter4democracy]

12. No, I'm just married to an internist.

We've been together since he was a pre-med, and we got married after his first year of med school.

It's not that anti-doctor sentiment surprises me, it's that vicious attacks do. The way some people write about doctors here, you'd think they were Satan's minions trying to kill off the human race.

[Pastiche423]

18. Some of those doctors deserve vicious attacks

After trying three years to get a doctor's appointment in the small town I moved to, I finally got one. (The doctors here were not excepting "new" medicare patients.)

I soon found out why I got the doctor I did. Instead of the routine procedures most doctors do i.e. take temperature, check eyes & ears, take BP, he demanded my medical records. Medical records? Does everyone keep medical records? My injury from which I became paralyzed was twenty years ago.

I simply needed a script for a new wheelchair, as my old one was literally coming apart. His assistant did fill out a script and got him to sign it. 90 days later, medicare denied my script (as they are trained to do.)

I called the people at the medical supply store I was dealing w/and they said the doctor refused to sign a new script. I called him and his only response was............. I want your medical records. I repeated I did not have twenty year old medical records and the conversation went down from there. He hung up on me.

A week later I received a letter from the doctor firing me! No thirty days warning, just an ugly letter and a bill for $185. This bill included no tests. It was simply for the one time visit.

As the years have gone by, I have learned that he fired four more people! WTF?

So yes, there are reasons for the vicious attacks on doctors.

[knitter4democracy]

21. I'm not saying bad doctors don't deserve derision, just not all.

Not all teachers are lazy jerks who go into it to get three months off every year, not all cops are pigs, not all lawyers are greedy cheats who victimize everyone they come in contact with, and not all doctors are evil or stupid or lazy.

That doctor makes no sense. Perhaps he'd gotten in trouble from Medicaid or Medicare for writing scrips for wheelchairs or scooters and wanted to make sure that you weren't faking. Then again, paralysis is hard to fake if he'd done any real checking. What a jerk! I can tell you that there are a couple of doctors in our area who are like that, and their patients are finding Hubby and coming to him instead. Bad doctors lose patients.

[Mend]

4. Thanks for the nice comments....as a doctor for over 30 years and

a life-long Democrat, married to a Democrat, child of Democrats, with a full-house of Democratic children, and lots of Democratic doctor friends, I hate the stereotypes frequently found on DU and elsewhere. I read here the other day that doctors secretly block the cures for cancer....that's a happy thought as my doctor colleagues and family members die of this disease. You are so right about the pens and mugs....and after a nice long 10 hour day, nothing I like better than to go to a pharma dinner....they get three hours of my valuable time and I get a $25 meal I could easily buy myself and skip the speeches and be home watching a ballgame.

[knitter4democracy]

15. Thank you for sticking with it. Too many good docs are leaving.

I read that comment about cancer, too, and it made me upset. There's no way my urologist was blocking my treatment last fall for my tumor that we all thought was cancer, and my oncologist friend was one of the most supportive friends I had through that whole experience.

[bmbmd]

23. I don't eat drug company food.

And I don't go to drug company meetings. I do have a lucky "Prozac" coffee mug.

[knitter4democracy]

28. Same as my hubby.

He takes the pens to give to the kids, but he gets really cranky if he has to talk with a drug rep even for a couple of minutes. The new practice he's in doesn't have a nurse who's a wall like his last one.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

37. One of the PCPs in the family practice I go to is a lib Dem (somehow

we got talking about politics when I was in for a check-up one day). She was going with her daughters to a protest in DC (this was a couple of years ago). She's also a pretty good doctor to boot.

[Annces]

5. I would add

that if you don't feel comfortable with a doctor, by all means find another quickly. There is a mentality that they are above you in rank, but many of them have no true compassion and are about making money.

Also you should be able to ask questions without feeling like you are imposing. I think it is a red flag when the doctor does not like discussing things.

[knitter4democracy]

11. Very good thing to add.

I often go with my gut on a doctor. I didn't end up going to an Ob/Gyn who wanted to argue with me through the whole visit, too. If a doctor wants to discuss, that's fine, but if she wants to argue and make me agree with her, we're not going to work well together.

[kineneb]

6. I like my doc,

and Hubby's collection of docs have been really helpful in keeping him alive and functional. My doc understands I am poor and can't pay for some things. At Christmas, he actually "gave" me a visit- no charge!

[RB TexLa]

9. always get a copy of the bill they file with the insurance

you have a right to have a copy. Check to make sure they bill the company for the conditions and treatments you actually have. Treating you for one thing and billing the insurance company for a different condition (which pays more) is stealing.

[EFerrari]

19. Most of the trouble I've had is with the medical community

in the field of mental health. The other pales in comparison.

Oh, knitter, it was really, really, REALLY bad, even dangerous. I have stood out in the rain for hours begging the city docs to sent out a unit to evaluate my husband, only to be turned down and then, to have to walk back into a potentially lethal situation. The DA expressed more concern -- that's how it works. :(

Doug went 18 months in the largest clinic in CA and never got one moment of appropriate therapy or meds. And when I advocated for him, I was treated to disrespect from hell. It was like living in a horror movie.

My rule of thumb is, if I can have a conversation with a medical practitioner that is like a conversation, we can work together. If not, I'm outta there.

And I say this with the full knowledge of how nearly impossible our so called "system" makes it for interested, dedicated people to work in the field. How the insurance companies have us by the throat. How difficult it is to deal with the public, day in and day out. It's not an easy thing to attend to illness and to the personality attached to that illness, over and over and over.

:hug:

/oops

[knitter4democracy]

22. I am so sorry for such horrific treatment.

I know that there are terrible doctors out there (I've gone to a couple myself and fired them as soon as I could), but you have seen Hell and lived through it. How awful. :(

I'm not saying bad doctors shouldn't be attacked (hey, I'm the first to say we need to yank their licenses, and I'm thinking of seeing if I can get on the state medical board so I can do that), just not all docs. Those doctors, the ones you dealt with, need to be hauled in front of a state medical board and screamed at and then sanctioned or put on probation. One more patient complaint, and they're out.

Edited to add: I hope you like how the lace butterflies are more random on the shawl. I am trying to make them look pretty. How big do you want it?

[EFerrari]

25. That's so beautiful!

Thank you, knitter. :hug:

[knitter4democracy]

27. I'm going to make it as big as I've got yarn.

It's a lovely handspun, hand-dyed cashmere yarn from American goats. It's super soft and cuddly, which is exactly what you need. I'm having fun knitting it. I'm also going to find this vendor at the fiber festival again this year. ;)

[EFerrari]

34. You're so lucky. I wish all my knitting didn't look like was chewed

by wild dogs. lol

Thank you, knitter. :hug:

[knitter4democracy]

38. I need to thank you.

You've been a source of wonder and power here. You need this shawl, and I need to make it for you. It's that simple. :)

:hug:

[Cleita]

40. ...

Sorry. Posted in the wrong place.

[knitter4democracy]

24. Kick for the night crowd.

:)

[WiseButAngrySara]

26. Wonderful post to read, and full of useful info! KNR! ....n/t

[trof]

30. K & R and spot on.

I know something about what you say.
Our two closest friends for almost 30 years are physicians. Married couple, both retired now. He was ob/gyn and she was GP/ER?Family Practice. Both excellent diagnosticians and just sweet people.

We learned a lot from them about how the system works and how to make it work to your advantage.
And they're joining us (and a CROWD) for Easter lunch today.
:-)

[knitter4democracy]

31. Tell them Happy Easter from me.

Married docs have a harder time of it, especially with the differences in schedules.

Gotta run and get ready for church. :)

[Straight Shooter]

32. Except for a couple anomalies, I've always had very good doctors.

Their egos don't bother me. I look at it as a natural extension of having worked so hard to get to where they are, that perhaps the need to be respected and admired for that sometimes comes across as a big ego. And then of course there are those who become physicians because they have a big ego to begin with, like some lawyers I have known. It isn't fair to paint an entire profession with a broad brush.

Big city or small town, I have been very fortunate to find excellent medical care. :)

[tavalon]

36. I've found that the really good ones don't need big egos

Big egos prop up bad self esteem and sadly, often substandard ability. I see more than the average number of doctors because I work in a hospital and I have to say, it holds pretty firmly that the bigger the ego, the less competent the doctor.

[knitter4democracy]

39. There's something to that.

I'm always having to tell Hubby that he's a good doctor. He doesn't believe it--he keeps saying there's so much he doesn't know.

[Rosemary2205]

33. Or just move to Atlanta....

I have used A LOT of medical care and had multiple surgeries in the last 5 years. Never had one bad doctor yet. Not one.

[tavalon]

35. Expect to be treated with respect

If you aren't, find another doctor. I've had a few doctors that I have dismissed for that reason. I'm a nurse and I expect to be treated as a fellow medical professional. The physicians I keep are the ones who treat me that way but don't assume that I automatically know what they are talking about. I'm not looking for a parent but rather, a colleague, a partner in my care. There aren't as many doctors out there that are comfortable with that dynamic as there are who are comfortable with the authoritarian paradigm. That said, they are out there.

[Cleita]

41. Health care givers like doctors are as much a victim of

our system as the patients or those who don't have health insurance. Having worked for doctors doing their billing, I know how difficult it is to get paid sometimes because of the red tape involved, which is why many people, who need care the most, slip through the cracks and the young and healthy can get treated for minor cuts and scratches because they have coverage. Also, government plans like Medicare are so behind present day costs in their fee schedules that it doesn't pay for doctors to accept those plans.

The only plan IMHO that is worth looking at and implementing is the one offered by the Physicians for a National Health Plan. http://www.pnhp.org . The problem is that until most doctors and other health care providers get on board with this plan, instead we will be offered a hodge podge of wasteful fixes written mostly by the insurance industry.

[RedCappedBandit]

42. Without doctors..

I would be outcasted. Most people in this world would never want to speak with me.

We owe them respect and appreciation. Their determination is to be admired. However, like with all professions, you will of course have "rotten eggs" If you meet one like that, find another one and keep doing so until you are happy.