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Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

cancer.nautil.us

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Re: Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

#11

Post by jacquesm »

alphaoverlord wrote: post #7
jacquesm wrote: post #4

I've done this, without feedback. The reason was that doctors seem to come in several varieties when it comes to bringing their ego to work and my doctor had a serious case of that. I was dehydrated after an operation and when he asked if he could do something for me I asked for some water, the doctor then ordered someone else not in the room to come and get me a glass of water. He couldn't be bothered to walk to the…

Would you want someone to get you water from a sink? With a tiny cup meant for spitting? Most doctors offices have water coolers or bottled water that they can give you. They probably didn't want to interrupt the flow of the exam and are on a tight schedule so don't want to be late for the next patient.

Well, since that's how it ended up anyway it would not have made any difference now, would it? The water in NL is safe to drink from the tap.

Also, I love it how I relate something where I was present and observing the whole thing and then you come along and tell me what really happened.

No, he definitely was not on a tight schedule, in fact he waited around for the nurse to come and hand me my cup with water from that very same tap before we continued our conversation which indicates the opposite. I'd had a tube down my throat for 6 hours or so and the irritation was such that I couldn't speak otherwise, but I was still too unsteady to get it myself or I would have happily done so. A few minutes would have made a big difference to me.

Re: Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

#12

Post by andoon »

danieltillett wrote: post #8

I have luckily been very healthy in my life, but I have always believed that the relationship between a doctor and a patient is a collaboration with the aim being to help the patient make the most appropriate decision for their needs. Too many doctors seem to be of the opinion they know best and the patient should just do as they say - even if they are correct technically it is not their life that is on the line. The…

>The patient is always right.

No he is not.

Re: Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

#13

Post by jacquesm »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #6
jacquesm wrote: post #4

I've done this, without feedback. The reason was that doctors seem to come in several varieties when it comes to bringing their ego to work and my doctor had a serious case of that. I was dehydrated after an operation and when he asked if he could do something for me I asked for some water, the doctor then ordered someone else not in the room to come and get me a glass of water. He couldn't be bothered to walk to the…

>the doctor then ordered someone else not in the room to come and get me a glass of water // It seems possible that was a hygiene issue. For example the doctor knew that he'd need then to wash his hands again (possibly twice, once before going to the cupboard, once after), or change his gloves, before continuing with your consultation?

It could have been but it wasn't. He wasn't in scrub and besides doctors are required to wash their hands between patients anyway and he'd touched other objects in the room already.

Re: Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

#14

Post by tim333 »

danieltillett wrote: post #8

I have luckily been very healthy in my life, but I have always believed that the relationship between a doctor and a patient is a collaboration with the aim being to help the patient make the most appropriate decision for their needs. Too many doctors seem to be of the opinion they know best and the patient should just do as they say - even if they are correct technically it is not their life that is on the line. The…

Not sure the patient is always right but the docs are often wrong. Collaboration probably works best. The docs have more medical knowledge but the patient may know more about their particular condition. I recently went to a dentist with a broken tooth and he wanted to do a root canal not because their was any evidence it was infected but because he thought it might be and why not from his point of view. From mine I'd rather wait and see if it was - it wasn't. That kind of stuff seems quite common.

Re: Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

#16

Post by peferron »

jacquesm wrote: post #4

I've done this, without feedback. The reason was that doctors seem to come in several varieties when it comes to bringing their ego to work and my doctor had a serious case of that. I was dehydrated after an operation and when he asked if he could do something for me I asked for some water, the doctor then ordered someone else not in the room to come and get me a glass of water. He couldn't be bothered to walk to the…

Regarding your first point, that's especially striking in the USA. There seems to be at least 4-5 assistants (nurses, secretaries...) for each doctor. Assistants check you in; you're left waiting in a room; after a seemingly random period of time, the doctor suddenly barges in, diagnoses you faster than the Flash, and leaves just as suddenly; assistants check you out.

I get that it's very efficient to work this way, but I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it. My father, now long retired, used to be a family doctor back in France. He shared his office with 4 other family doctors + 1 secretary that they paid with their combined income to take care of their appointments. He used to spend 20 minutes in average with each client. One of his colleagues routinely spent 30 minutes.

I should ask him about his churn. :)

Re: Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

#17

Post by Herodotus38 »

ljoshua wrote: post #9

This is a growing and very important aspect of value-based care, and really factors into the discussion of quality that will be more a part of reimbursement than it ever has been. The article focused mostly on the provider him or herself, but patients also take into account the entire experience, including office staff, scheduling and billing procedures, etc. Shameless self promotion: this is the exact problem my co-…

It looks like your model uses immediate or nearly so text messaging after an interaction. Since a phone number is protected health information as per HIPAA, I'd be interested in how it's been setting a business associate contract? I imagine there is quite a bit of red tape. Are you able to set up one and use it for each clinical entity or does it require a bit of individualization?

Re: Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

#18

Post by jacquesm »

peferron wrote: post #16
jacquesm wrote: post #4

I've done this, without feedback. The reason was that doctors seem to come in several varieties when it comes to bringing their ego to work and my doctor had a serious case of that. I was dehydrated after an operation and when he asked if he could do something for me I asked for some water, the doctor then ordered someone else not in the room to come and get me a glass of water. He couldn't be bothered to walk to the…

Regarding your first point, that's especially striking in the USA. There seems to be at least 4-5 assistants (nurses, secretaries...) for each doctor. Assistants check you in; you're left waiting in a room; after a seemingly random period of time, the doctor suddenly barges in, diagnoses you faster than the Flash, and leaves just as suddenly; assistants check you out. I get that it's very efficient to work this way,…

France has some of the best healthcare in the world. A family member was involved in a horrific truck/passenger bus accident in France near Metz and I spent the better part of a week in and out of their intensive care department visiting. I've never seen a hospital that I liked better.

Everybody was so unbelievably nice and caring it was a huge improvement over what I'd seen elsewhere.

http://krant.telegraaf.nl/krant/archief/20020319/fotos/bin.v...

It was a pretty bad accident (5 dead, 55 wounded of which 3 critical one of those criticals was my family) with lots of beds suddenly occupied by people not speaking French and a large multiple of that in foreigners roaming the corridors and yet they dealt with all that with grace and understanding.

Re: Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

#19

Post by danieltillett »

andoon wrote: post #12
danieltillett wrote: post #8

I have luckily been very healthy in my life, but I have always believed that the relationship between a doctor and a patient is a collaboration with the aim being to help the patient make the most appropriate decision for their needs. Too many doctors seem to be of the opinion they know best and the patient should just do as they say - even if they are correct technically it is not their life that is on the line. The…

>The patient is always right. No he is not.

Even when "wrong" the patient is right. It is their life and it is for them to decide what to do.

Re: Why Did My Patient Leave Me?

#20

Post by speeder »

I don't bother explaining to doctors why I switched.

Every time I did in the past they got personally offended and refused to address their flaws, so why bother?

Also I am almost convinced good medics in certain fields (endocrinology for example) are almost nonexistent.

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