Have you ever tried to 'fire' a doctor? I am trying my best to tell one I'm not

[sinkingfeeling]

going to do what he wants and I'm not going to see him again. It's worst than my divorce!

Instead of working with my oncology group and requesting they schedule a PET scan for me, the ENT's office set up a CT scan at the hospital next door to their office without checking the date or time with me. They then left a voice mail to tell me this. For some reason, this surgeon has a problem with the one and only oncology group in the area and this is second time they have refused to set up appointments.

The reasons I dislike this ENT are:

A year ago, he did a needle biopsy and told me my tumor wasn't cancer.
He was then 3 hours late for the surgery to remove the tumor.
It was a Stage IV cancer.
He didn't provide any monitoring of me for the 4 days I was in the hospital. He wasn't in town.
Didn't do a physical examination of the incision 7 days after surgery and didn't see me again for 6 months.
His office took over 8 weeks to refer me to the oncologists.
A stitch was left in my neck throughout radiation treatments causing severe burning and the only scar I have from radiation.
He set up a schedule to only exam me every 3 months during this first year. My oncologist was pissed and said I should have been examined every 6 weeks during the first year.
Now he's blown off my one-year PET scan.

I will see my oncologist April 7 and ask him if I should have the PET and he can set it up.

[elehhhhna]

1. Give him the above list, in letter form, and tell him he's fired. Ask the onc

to refer you to a GOOD doctor. He will..

[cleverusername]

2. Report this doctor to the medical board

Not only should you fire this doctor, you should report him to the medical board in your state. Sorry that you had such a bad experience.

[dysfunctional press]

3. i've 'fired' several doctors, for various reasons.

on two separate occasions, i walked out with MY medical file under my arm.

it's YOUR health- take charge of it, and don't take any shit from a crappy doctor.

[PassingFair]

4. Can his ass.

Please let us know how his replacement works out!

:hug:

[gimama]

5. Fire HIM, NOW

This guy is NO HEALER..
YOU deserve CARE..he & his staff obviously do NOT care for YOU & Your HEALING.

Yes, I have fired 1, before he nearly killed me..
actually, a bad dentist, too.

I don't really trust white man's medicine, usually rely on herbs & Home remedies..
YOU need REAL, cutting edge, science + compassion.. NOW.
Fire 'em, & report 'em,
and get YOUR HEALING done.

(that's also a goood Van Morrison song, GETTING THE HEALING DONE)

Please let us know how this goes, ok?

Bless YOU~===]

[w8liftinglady]

6. I fired my neurologist...he told me I was "depressed"

and got me hooked on ativan.I am having brain surgery in a month,thanks to my new neurologist.Find your new doc,and send the old one a list of why you are firng him.

[Contrary1]

7. No need to "fire" him...

Just do some research, pick another doctor, and have your records sent to their office.

I am a breast cancer survivor of 12 years. Don't know what cancer you were dealing with; but please feel free to PM me if I can be of any help.

:)

[virgogal]

8. You fire a doctor the same way you fire an electrician or plumber.

"I'm not satisfied with your work and I'm going elsewhere."

No further explanation is needed.

Forget the doctor mystique.

[davepc]

9. you didn't get a second opinion on the biopsy?

[LiberalFighter]

10. I would fire him too if he is ENT.

ENT is Ear, Nose and Throat.

[UTUSN]

11. AbsoLUTEly I have. And it doesn't have to be a dramatic firing, just ask for a copy of your records

in a very offhand way. You don't have to say why. It's your right to have them. If they insist on charging for making copies, PAY it. If they don't want to give you the records, call your State agency that licenses doctors and ask them to help you.

You need your records.

Then just go to ANOTHER DOCTOR. If this is not your primary doctor and you need your primary to refer you to somebody else, then talk it out with your primary.

You don't need "permission" to change doctors. You can do it. I have done it, and without telling them ahead of time or telling them ANYTHING.

OTOH, I *have* given feedback to my Primary about how his referrals to the Secondaries have worked out---this one was good, or, I won't go to THAT one again.

[Dappleganger]

16. ASK FOR RECORDS FIRST

before doing anything else. Otherwise, they will drag their feet if they know what you're doing. There are usually state laws which regulate how much to pay for each page of records copied and released to patients so you'll probably have to pay.

After receiving the records, THEN give him and the office that letter. His staff probably already knows there are problems. Is the staff part of the problem too? If so, don't forget to name their offenses as well.

I have left two doctor's over poor staffing practices but always wished I'd had the nerve to tell them why. One doctor even left that group because the front desk was so irresponsible, she began her own pediatric practice and we're still w/her today.

[HelenWheels]

23. Yes, get the records before

you start any legal action. A relative of mine has a high position in one of the local hospitals and said get the records first as they can be changed.

[Duppers]

28. +100

I've 'fired' plenty of docs like that.

[bobburgster]

12. Damn, do you live near me!

Doctors up here still use hack saws.....sounds like you are in the same boat. Dump him and run!

Sorry to hear of your serious medical problems....wishing you the best.

[havocmom]

13. All the above, plus I can guess why he has a problem with oncologist group

They probably know enough about him (and his serial negligence) to get his license pulled.

[Dappleganger]

14. Exactly!

This doctor is clearly incompetent and doesn't even CARE. Send a letter to his office detailing why he is being fired and also send it to your insurance company so that they will know how incompetent he is and hopefully they will DROP him. If things are seriously negligent, he also deserves to go before the state medical board for a review although we all know how that usually turns out.

As a fellow cancer survivor my heart goes out to you, you definitely deserve the best doctors and care possible during this stressful time. :(

[CTyankee]

15. I fired a pediatrician, a dentist, a surgeon and a cardiologist.

In every case but the last I just found another doc and had my records sent there. With the cardiologist, I was pressured by my primary care doc to leave my blood pressure issue in his hands, not with a cardiologist since I didn'thave heart problems. I liked the cardiologist and felt he put me on good meds (which lowered my bp and also cured my pvcs), but my primary care doc persuaded me that going straight to a cardiologist with the problem was one reason health care in this country is so effed up. His reasoning was accurate, I felt. So I talked to the cardio guy's receptionist about why I was cancelling my next appt. and explained it wasn't because I had gotten poor care, but at that point my primary care guy was taking proper care of me. I really liked my cardio guy...he was a BIG Dem and his wife was a delegate (pledged to Hlllary) during the campaign. Had a nice big photo of him with Bill Clinton in his hallway.

[Fire1]

17. Get your Oncologist to refer you to another physician. Easy.

[Warpy]

18. First, talk to the guy

Write down your concerns, or just print this post out. You might be blaming him for poor follow up care when your insurance company is at fault, not approving any more than quarterly follow up. That might also be the case with the PET scan, they're not cheap. The delay in seeing the oncologist could be a scheduling problem. Did someone else look at your operative site in the hospital? When docs go out of town, they have to have someone else cover their hospitalized patients. Getting an inspection 7 days after surgery isn't that uncommon, mine after an appendectomy was 10 days and I'd already removed my own stitches because they were driving me nuts, bad girl.

That stitch left in your neck should have been caught by someone, including your oncologist or the radiologist.

As for not clearing test schedules with you, they tend to schedule them when they can fit you in, that's standard operating procedure.

In any case, the guy deserves a chance to defend himself.

[madmom]

19. Yes twice. My ob-gyn because he got mad at me because I couldn't understand his

accent. The second when my pediatrician told me my new born son will probably die young because he was so big at birth. They were both Indian if that means anything.

[nashville_brook]

20. from my experience with shitty doc situations (which is pretty vast), the best thing you can do

is find the doc you want to see, and have your records transferred. period.

if you want to pursue a letter to the board, do it later.

you don't own this doc an explanation...and certainly not an exit interview.

[Skidmore]

21. We had a similar problem with an oncologist when my mother was

diagnosed with renal cancer. This guy should not have been allowed to do anything more than lab work. She was so distressed by having to interact with him and he would not take no for an answer. I went to the hospital's patient rep and explained the situation to her. SHe took it to the head of Oncology, who removed him from her case and he took over the case himself. Things improved immensely after that.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

22. Call the oncologist before April and get the PET scan done before you see him.

[SharonAnn]

24. Fire him now! One like that killed my husband. He did "his" testing and didn't catch tum

He didn't send him for a colonoscopy (why should that gastro-enterologist get all that money?) but instead did a sigmoidoscopy and didn't find the tumor. So he treated my husband for "anxiety". I didn't think that made sense but we were busy building a house at the time and I was pretty busy so I let it go. After all, he was seeing the doctor and doing what the doctor told him to do, right?

Then, he complained that he was still having the abdominal pains and cramps (I hadn't realized the extent of his problems) and I saw blood in the toilet. That was it! I called the doctor, we went in immediately, I told him I want my husband referred to a gastro-enterologist, a colonoscopy was done the next day, and and advanced Stage 3 tumor (enormous) was found in the sigmoid colon.

Husband then had to wait for surgery because he had lost so much blood, had a colon resection, did 6 months chemotherapy on FOLFOX, cancer metastisized, did 2 months chemotherapy on FOLFIRI but side effect nearly killed him, did a drug trial at M.D. Anderson in Houston but after 2 months had surgery for colon obstruction (enormous tumor growth again), was on 50% FOLFIRI for Oct - January. Now the FOLFIRI is no longer having any effect (that was expected) and there are no more treatments for his type of colon cancer which is resistan to Erbitux, etc.

I have spent this week with getting him enrolled with hospice, getting pain medication adjust, making arrangements for all the things relating to end-of-life care and things that I'll have to deal with when he's gone.

All because an MD wanted to keep as much money as he could within his billing practice. I have since found out that this doctor doesn't like to refer patients for anything. He figures he's losing the opportunity to bill for the services.

So for over two years my husband has suffered, is now dying, and I'm heartbroken. All because an MD was trying to make as much money as he could.

Oh, and in TN they recently changed the medical malpractice laws, one of the things our Blue Dog Democrats are so proud of is the reduction in malpractice cases and awards, so that you have to not only file within 1 year, but you have to have an expert MD from TN or an adjacent state do laborious work verifying probably malpractice before it can even be filed.

It took me almost a year, care-giving my husband through the surgery and the chemotherapy, before I even realized that this should've been caught much earlier and he would've had a good chance of survival. But the money hungry doctor stole my husband's good chance at life.

[renate]

25. ... no words...

I am so sorry. What you and your husband are going through is so wrong. :hug:

[TwilightGardener]

27. What a terrible story--best wishes and peace to you and your husband. I hope he

is comfortable and that you have enough support to see you both through.

[liberalhistorian]

34. I'm so sorry!!! My lifelong best friend was directly killed by

a horrible case of senseless negligence; she suffered for nearly a year before finally succumbing. Yesterday was the first anniversary of her death. I hope the two doctors responsible are never permitted to practice again, but that's probably too much to hope for. There is no anger quite like a senseless death at the hands of malpractice, then to be told that all suits are frivolous and that tort "reform" is necessary, with NO recognition that the medical profession needs to be accountable for the consequences of their negligence.

[gleaner]

26. I've fired several doctors ...

With MS a lot of them tend to under treat you or try to pressure you to take treatments that are practically lethal with no certain outcome and many other things I don't want to put up with. I had and EENT once who was using a little vacuum thingy to clean my ears. It wasn't supposed to touch the ear canal because it would cause pain and there was a potential for damage. He was jamming as many patients as he could into his day and he got careless. He zinged me a good one in the ear. I told him to stop it. He said I wasn't really feeling pain I just thought I was. I lost it with him. I told him only a moron would tell another person whether or not they were experiencing pain, and I wasn't going to see him anymore. When I left the receptionist stopped me and said the doctor had told her to make another appointment. I responded that he was fired. She wanted to know why and I told her it was because he was a moron. Shortly after I got home she called again and wanted to know if I really meant what I said. I told her I really did. Then the doctor called. By then I had really, really had enough. I told him he was a moron and sent him a computer fax telling him he was fired because he was a moron and never to call me again. He never did.

The second doctor kept asking me about my MS symptoms and then he would say, "But how do I know it's true?" I said, "Because I told you." We did that for about fifteen minutes then I got up to leave and told him I would not be back. He said he had to write a report anyway. I told him to write it and shove it up his butt, he was still fired.

You don't have a contract with a doctor. You can fire them. Put it in writing as you have in the post. Send it certified and make someone in his office sign for it. Reporting him to the medical board is a good suggestion. Mention in your letter that discharges him that you are contacting the medical board. At that point he will back off. Then try to get a better doctor. There is no reason why you should have to put up with stuff like this. If all else fails, call him a moron.;)

[ddeclue]

29. Sounds like you need to HIRE a lawyer to fire your doctor...maybe a lawsuit is in order?

[AwakeAtLast]

32. That was going to be my answer, too.

[sendero]

30. Many times..

.... just don't go back.

[McCamy Taylor]

31. Ask your oncologist to recommend a different ENT.

[liberalhistorian]

33. But.......but........that can't be right! The GOP and the AMA

and the media and most doctors say there is no such thing as medical malpractice or bad doctors, only uncooperative, ungrateful patients and greedy lawyers. So you must be mistaken!!! :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Mopar151]

35. Had to fire 2 of my wife's docs

Who were absolutely full of crap. Luckily, they were not on her case long, so there wer'nt any records to miss. Get your records soonest - they are ultimately yours, and should not be held hostage.
In my wife's case, we asked the physiatrist to reccomend a new GP. He would'nt say anything, but she had a new one a week later, right after she saw the surgeon her old docs said would'nt be able to help her.

[Golden Raisin]

36. Yes. I didn't try. I found

a new doctor and left the old one. Your list above qualifies in my book for immediate firing. Good luck!