Patients, please listen. I have some things to say to you, per an article today in the Washington Post. The story details the ways in which patients can go online and rate their physicians, at websites such as RateMDs.com and Angie’s List. Patients typically write about such horrible woes as waiting for forty five minutes, having to wait an hour in the waiting room, and other seemingly unbearable complaints. Physicians are now doing the best that they can to enact some form of legislation that would disallow the public commentary about specific doctors and their practices. Why? Because although it may make a patient feel better for a few minutes to completely rant on a doctor for their bad experience and warn the rest of the world never to attend the practice, it can literally crush the entire career of a physician or surgeon. We all have to admit that we have been extremely peeved multiple times due to a doctor’s visit. Our appointment was at 1, we waited until 3, or we sat unclothed in one of those paper robes sitting on the table in the nearly refrigerated room for forty five minutes. In the end, though, did you really consider that a reason to end your doctor’s career or do enough damage where he can’t put enough food on his own table?
This may sound exaggerated, but I warn you it is not. People ask for far more than physicians as individuals can do for them. To become a doctor, you must have a genuine interest in relieving the suffering of another human being, and you must maintain that desire through many trials and tribulations, lasting years. Physicians and surgeons would most likely do every small thing you ask for, if they could. Insurance companies only reimburse physicians and surgeons for the dollar amount that they see fit, which is typically much less than it actually costs. So before you go posting how terrible your experience was, keep in mind that your physician paid for about half of your visit out of his own pocket. Also, if you want physicians to really listen to you and talk to you, answering all your questions, then be respectful if he runs late because that means he was doing just that with his previous patients. He will do the same with you, and the next patient, until he is at work for an extra eight hours than planned. Please do this for me: think of all of your issues with the doctor from his perspective, and it may actually be better than you thought. Extra waiting time means that he will spend extra time with patients, regardless of his schedule (good thing!). Posting good reviews is fine, because it helps other people receive good medical care, and it helps your physician as well, instead of ruining one and warning another. Use your best judgment.
July 23, 2009
