Say Anything Blog

Heh, I was seriously considering the same thing.  My wife was having a problem so she went to her doctor.  They took a specimen and said it had to be sent out to the lab.  This was Wednesday.  Her condition worsened until Sunday so we went to the hospital.  They ran the test right away and we left with a prescription.  Later that week she had a doctors appt. and they said “oh yeah, you had an infection”.

No kidding.  Thanks for the great work doc.  I got billed $20 by the doctor’s office and $100 by the hospital.  I thought about forwarding the hospital bill to the doctors office, then I thought about calling the doctor’s office and telling them to write off the $20.

Considering that this is my wife whom I do not wish to piss off, I think I’ll just pay the $20 and mumble about it in my sleep.  Much better than explaining to my wife why she has to switch doctors 2 weeks before our son is due.

I guess I feel lucky with my doctor/clinic setup. Or setups.

For my primary care physician, he does appointments in 1/2 hour blocks. He won’t schedule for less time and he won’t let you out of the room without asking you a couple of times if there’s anything else you need to discuss. I’ve never had to wait more than about 5-10 minutes for him and once, he’s come to get me to start things off instead of the nurse as the nurse was busy with something else. He did everything he needed to with me, then afterwards the nurse came in and did all of the preliminary stuff.

Now with my orthopedic doctor (I have an artificial hip), things can get a little more complicated. He does 300+ hip/knee replacement surgeries a year. A surgery that turned out to be more complicated got my appointment delayed by a week once, but they were quick to call beforehand and had a new time ready to go. And I’m fairly certain that happened to other people when I had my surgery as it turned out to be more complicated than a 2D x-ray could show. But once I’ve gotten into his office, I’ve never waited more than 15 minutes to get taken to a room. And despite all of those patients, I feel I would be able to continue to ask questions until I was satisfied.

I guess physician assistants are going to be required to get PHD’s rather than masters degrees around 2015.

This is just one more example of the AMA (or someone) restricting supply to benefit the doctors and not the public.

Another example is that the AMA has made it so expensive to add more seats in medical schools.  I talked to someone in the administration here and was told it’d cost millions to add just one more student to our medical school.

[W]hat you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Umm, the reason we have so few doctors is that doctor training is extremely difficult and not very many people can do it.  If you want a competent service that requires a high level of education and accomplishment, be willing to wait / pay for it.

Now with my orthopedic doctor (I have an artificial hip), things can get a little more complicated. He does 300+ hip/knee replacement surgeries a year. A surgery that turned out to be more complicated got my appointment delayed by a week once, but they were quick to call beforehand and had a new time ready to go. And I’m fairly certain that happened to other people when I had my surgery as it turned out to be more complicated than a 2D x-ray could show. But once I’ve gotten into his office, I’ve never waited more than 15 minutes to get taken to a room.

If you want a competent service that requires a high level of education and accomplishment

On the other hand the doctor that gives a child a glance and prescribes a bottle of the pink antibiotic could easily be supplemented by a nurse practitioner or physicians assistant. 

I would say most clinic visits could be done by a lesser trained person.

[W]hat you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Having been through the births of my five kids and a surgery apiece for my wife and myself, I’m well acquainted with “medical time,” the phenomenon of 10am becoming 8pm.  I tend to tolerate it for obstetricians and surgeons, who are often called out to handle cases more complicated than mine.  However, when it’s a general practicioner or family medicine specialist who doesn’t generally have to deal with this kind of thing, I tend to take a very dim view of a doctor being more than 15 minutes late to an appointment.

One thing that comes to mind for me is that I don’t see it too often.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that in my town, most of the customers are paying?

My question is this: If there were as many doctors as there are lawyers, would we have to wait so long for our appointments, and would it cost us nearly as much as it does?

If there were fewer lawyers - we’d have more doctors.

"It’s a dog eat dog world and we’re wearing milk bone underwear.” NP

Umm, the reason we have so few doctors is that doctor training is extremely difficult and not very many people can do it.

True, but only to a limited expent. A general practitioner or even, like stated above, a qualified nurse practitioner could handle a basic family medicine practice. Specialists, of course, are a different story.

Doctors are a mountain of knowledge but operating under the assumption that just a very few have what it takes is exactlt they elitist attitude I was talking about. If you’ll recall, the AMA objected to the early paramedic program because they felt that laymen couldn’t - or shouldn’t - do a medical professional’s job.

The future ain’t what it used to be.....

Why do you think you wait?? Is the doctor playing golf? No it is because other patients require more than 15 minutes to see becasue they bring in a laundry list of problems they want solved rather than trying to take some responsibility for their own health. ie losing weight.

This shortage is the result of the govt handing a monopoly to the AMA in the late Nineteenth Century.  It has kept medical care more expensive and less available since then, and with the creeping socialization of medical care through govt regulation and the use of insurance companies to fund something that a free market would deliver at affordable prices for the vast majority, it will continue to get worse.  Like the long term energy problem, the healthcare problem won’t go away until we get the govt out of the market.

The only legitimate role of government with regard to economics is to prevent fraud and provide a remedy- civil and criminal penalties- in case of fraud.

People have the mistaken notion that the free market has no rules.  But it most certainly does.  All our problems are due to government meddling.

Then there’s the story of the high-powered lawyer who billed his clients at $400/hr.  His appointment ran 2 hours past the original time.  He billed the clinic $800 for his time, took it to small claims court, and won.  The story may be apochryphal, but it would probably be the only time I’d ever root for a lawyer.

Years ago Johnny Carson had someone with that story on his show.  The point was that the doctor never claimed that professional circumstances led to him being late.

Apparently the court understood that a medical emergency would take precedence in their contractual agreement but simply coming in late wouldn’t.

I had a circumstance like this for about an half an hour once but the doctor explained he was over at the hospital and he got nailed with question after question.

It might have been BS but it mollified me.

[W]hat you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Some years ago I was at Altru for my annual physical.  Outside the door of the exam room I heard the doctor complain to the nurse about the recent policy of setting up appointments in 15 minute blocks.  “That’s an impossibly brief period of time.” I got the impression that the policy was created by the empty-suit administrators.  I learned to expect that doctors would be at least 4 patients behind by noon.  That’s when I started trying to be the first appt of the day.

I got the impression that the policy was created by the empty-suit administrators.

socialist enterprises are always administration top-heavy.

The only legitimate role of government with regard to economics is to prevent fraud and provide a remedy- civil and criminal penalties- in case of fraud.

People have the mistaken notion that the free market has no rules.  But it most certainly does.  All our problems are due to government meddling.

got the impression that the policy was created by the empty-suit administrators.

I think I know who you mean.  Nice hair isn’t always an indication of getting things done.

[W]hat you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

THey’d better get this lined out soon.
Have Ya’ll noticed all the brain problems of the left?
Stroke, tumor, now aneurism.

Without an honest exchange of ideas, how can a mind grow?

There is a definite shortage of doctors, not alone because it is so difficult, or that American schools are turning out grads that can not it. Fewer and fewer people are choosing to become doctors. Nurses, physical therapists, medical systems technicians. Not doctors. Doctors get the crap sued out of them. All those commercials for medical malpractice lawyers is sending that message loud and clear.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

Our medical costs are so high because I don’t pay my doctor directly.  Don’t believe me, take a look at cosmetic surgery and how the prices haven’t increase like normal healthcare during the current boon in demand for the service.  It is because they get paid for the service they perform, at the time they perform it, from the person they are performing it on.  Plus if the person isn’t satisfied they are not going to recomend their friends to use that doctor.  This results in good prices and services for the consumer, because in the end that is what we are, we are consumer of medical services that should demand a better product.

That is a major factor in the continuing rise in medical costs, no doubt. Insurance and government paid care has and is massively distorting the medical care system. When someone else pays far too many people do not care about the price.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

Dr. Robert Berry Runs a clinic where he refuses to accept any insurance.  It’s a great story about how insurers (both private and government) tend to drive the increase in prices. 

His testimony to congress can be found here.
http://www.aapsonline.org/freemarket/berry.htm

"It’s a dog eat dog world and we’re wearing milk bone underwear.” NP

interesting post. If had a sniffle I would be upset at waiting 2 hours too. Your response was allright.
However, if I was badly sick and geting sicker, unable to work or even stand, I wouldn’t mind waiting.  Thanks be to God for my doctors, who took their sweet time but fixed me, so I could go back to my own practice. Maybe you have never really been as sick as you have been in a hurry.
Stay well.

This shortage is the result of the govt handing a monopoly to the AMA in the late Nineteenth Century.  It has kept medical care more expensive and less available since then, and with the creeping socialization of medical care through govt regulation and the use of insurance companies to fund something that a free market would deliver at affordable prices for the vast majority, it will continue to get worse.

. Maybe you have never really been as sick as you have been in a hurry.

Nice snipe, Phillip, but it misses the point by a wide mile.

It’s not a matter of being in a hurry. It’s a matter of customer service. We tend to forget that we are in fact the customers of the medical profession, allowing them to be the one who tell us what we can and can’t do.

They (and judging from your post, maybe you) tend to forget that they work for US...not the other way around.

Dose of reality, there, Doc....sorry.

The future ain’t what it used to be.....