You are absolutely right. Training has fallen off, and physicians have surrendered control of their practice of medicine, to the detriment of the phtsucalbsrare of tge patients abd the mental state of the doctors. When I recently had cataract surgery, the first question asked by admitting was whether I wanted to be called he or she!
I have asked people with whom I have regular contact, and not ONE new internist has examined their eyes with an ophthalmoscope, asked them to stick their tongue out and say aah, and of course never looked into their ears. The nurse determines their weight by asking them how much they weigh. And I don't dare ask if any doctor ever squeezed their neck from behind with their fingers in front and asked them to swallow to feel for nodules as their thyroid gland moves up and down. No one's heart is listened to in the three basic positions: sitting up, lying down, and in the left.lateral decubitus position. And doctors have defended listening to the heart and lungs through a blouse or shirt, which is the way the listening is always depicted in all.hospital system ads. God help the patients, and they don't even know that they are being underexamimed.
Indicative of the fall of medicine is trying to make an appointment with a doctor through the “general phone bank”’at any major medical center. It can’t be done in less than two hours, if at all. I am a physician on staff at such a hospital and to make an appointment I had to go in person to the department and even then waited months to be seen Private docs had skin the game and feeding their families depended on satisfying patients and bringing them to their offices. I hear my staff talking to my patients on the phone and I know and care how my office runs. Doctors who sell their practices to the local hospitals are uniformly miserable. How can their patients be any different?
Marc- Interesting comment. We had dinner with old friends last night. Hightly educated and well-to-do. I say this to indicate that they are not shy about seeking attentive service. They just moved from Park City, UT to Raleigh-Durham, NC and are trying to transfer their care locally. The husband has sleep apnea and called Duke Medical Center to establish himself as a patient. He tried on the phone to obtain an appointment and the earliest date he could get was at the end of September 2024! I told him this was unacceptable and that he needed to go in person to make the appointment. My wife had an identical experience. Medicine is very broken in multiple ways. VERY broken.
You are absolutely right. Training has fallen off, and physicians have surrendered control of their practice of medicine, to the detriment of the phtsucalbsrare of tge patients abd the mental state of the doctors. When I recently had cataract surgery, the first question asked by admitting was whether I wanted to be called he or she!
I have asked people with whom I have regular contact, and not ONE new internist has examined their eyes with an ophthalmoscope, asked them to stick their tongue out and say aah, and of course never looked into their ears. The nurse determines their weight by asking them how much they weigh. And I don't dare ask if any doctor ever squeezed their neck from behind with their fingers in front and asked them to swallow to feel for nodules as their thyroid gland moves up and down. No one's heart is listened to in the three basic positions: sitting up, lying down, and in the left.lateral decubitus position. And doctors have defended listening to the heart and lungs through a blouse or shirt, which is the way the listening is always depicted in all.hospital system ads. God help the patients, and they don't even know that they are being underexamimed.
Indicative of the fall of medicine is trying to make an appointment with a doctor through the “general phone bank”’at any major medical center. It can’t be done in less than two hours, if at all. I am a physician on staff at such a hospital and to make an appointment I had to go in person to the department and even then waited months to be seen Private docs had skin the game and feeding their families depended on satisfying patients and bringing them to their offices. I hear my staff talking to my patients on the phone and I know and care how my office runs. Doctors who sell their practices to the local hospitals are uniformly miserable. How can their patients be any different?
Marc- Interesting comment. We had dinner with old friends last night. Hightly educated and well-to-do. I say this to indicate that they are not shy about seeking attentive service. They just moved from Park City, UT to Raleigh-Durham, NC and are trying to transfer their care locally. The husband has sleep apnea and called Duke Medical Center to establish himself as a patient. He tried on the phone to obtain an appointment and the earliest date he could get was at the end of September 2024! I told him this was unacceptable and that he needed to go in person to make the appointment. My wife had an identical experience. Medicine is very broken in multiple ways. VERY broken.
I enjoy your articles/ musings. They really resonate with me a 50 ish pharmacist. Thank you.