You think doctors are burning out?
ou think doctors are burning out? Try being a patient!
Dear doctor, I know things are bad for your profession. You’re working long hours. I can see how stressed you are when you come into the room. I see how much you’re getting paid by my insurance company and it’s ridiculously low.
But, I’m a patient and I need medical care. I wish I didn’t need it, but this is the body I’ve got. I need you and I need the medical system.
Like you, however, I can see how this system is horribly broken.
You sent me to a Urologist because of my prostate. They are so busy, the appointment didn’t happen for MONTHS. Then, they did a biopsy. No follow-up appointment was scheduled, but I can see on their “My Chart” app that the results aren’t good. I called their office and my Urologist is now on a 3 week vacation and no one else wants to handle it. I’m freaking out!
My Cardiologist did a stress test and weeks have gone by and no one will return my calls. My heart is doing some weird skipping things and the best anyone will do is tell me to call 911. Have you seen the ER recently? Nothing gets accomplished. They say “follow-up with your Cardiologist.” But, how can I do that?In fact, every time I call a doctor, I never get a human, but the recording tells me to call 911 if it’s an Emergency. Sometimes, I don’t know if I’m having an emergency! It’s not like I’m a doctor!
Speaking of doctors: WHERE ARE THEY? Every appointment I have, no matter the specialty, is with a PA or NP. Since when did those folks do residencies and specialty fellowships?
Why does everything take a month or several months? I need to see a Neurologist, but I can’t get an appointment for four months and that’s with an NP, rather than the actual specialist!
My last doctor started me on five different medicines all at once and I got sick as a dog. So, I called the doctor. They only let me leave a message and told me they’d call me back. That was five years ago! Not really, but almost!
Every pharmaceutical ad I see on TV says “Call your doctor if you get…blah…blah…blah…” I want to scream! Call your doctor? What planet are you living on? You can’t just call your doctor!
At my last specialty visit, the PA ordered a super expensive drug and the insurance denied it. My pharmacy says no one is doing the Prior Authorization work. Weeks have gone by and I still don’t have the medicine. Was the medicine important? I called the PA, but… you guessed it… no one called back.
The one thing we do have in this town are “Vein Doctors!” Yep! You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a vein doctor, ready to inject or laser your varicose veins and make you a fashion model again… or something like that.
So, how come we have the most expensive healthcare in the World, but it feels like it’s the biggest screw up disaster in the Universe?
I know, Doctor. It’s not your fault and it upsets you just as much as it does me. You’re probably more burned out because you see nice people like me having a terrible time navigating this crazy medical maze. You’re not getting any younger and I bet you’re worried about your own future on the opposite end of the stethoscope.
Trust me: It sucks!!
I’m retiring from solo Family Medicine after 40+ years. So much has changed and not always for the good. We can choose to retire from Medicine, but we are patients until we die.
“There was no way to tell which devastation had been accomplished by the humanitarians and which by undisguised gangsters…Men had been pushed into a pit where, shouting that man is his brother’s keeper, each was devouring his neighbor and was being devoured by his neighbor’s brother, each was proclaiming the righteousness of the unearned and wondering who was stripping the skin off his back, each was devouring himself, while screaming in terror that some unknowable evil was destroying the earth.”
– Ayn Rand, from “Atlas Shrugged”
At least the health insurance business is doing well. There are many TV ads and you can buy a policy online. I see so many people who have crap insurance………I will offer a discounted cash fee because i am out of network but most walk out anyway. The quality of my education is nebulous to ordinary people. But I cannot afford to feel sorry for them AND GOD FORBID I WILL NEVER SEE A PATIENT WHO IS NOT DANGLING HIS WALLET WITHOUT CHECKING HIS INSURANCE FIRST. Call me heartless.
There is always the free ER or a cheap walk-in clinic……..they can handle eye cases, right?
Just close your eyes and repeat after me: “80% of patients get better no matter what you do…..”
Also on a side note, the insurance companies can grow ever more profitable as they are selling access to doctors who do not exist. But then again I wonder how these mid-levels deal with complex cases…..it does cost money to scan the whole body.
And last but not least, don’t blame the doctor for lost phone messages and possible clerical errors…..I have found it nearly impossible to find office staff that I can rely on, that do not call in sick with migraines, that are not on drugs, that do not take bathroom breaks every 30 minutes….I guess i am lining up reasons to retire….sadly