I first want to admit that I am an ex-medical professional. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s I worked in a local hospital for several years in the OR.
Over the past 20+ years I have seen medicine change and evolve into areas that I am NOT pleased with. Today I feel like I need to “VENT” about some of those changes as I know others are disgusted with it too.
1. I hate that many doctor’s offices are going to automated answering systems where you need to listen to recorded messages, press such and such button & leave a voice mail message on why you are calling. Heck, some of these offices you don’t even reach a LIVE human being until they return your call. What is that about? I want to speak to a LIVE human when I call a doctor’s office!
2. Wait times are getting outrageous! For years, I could go into my doctor’s office and wait 15 to 20 minutes in the waiting room before I was being seen by her. Now I am lucky that I am seen within an hour every time I show up at her office or at any of my doctor’s offices when I go in. These 1+ hour waiting room times are out of control. If you are that booked up, hire more help! The patient’s time is just as damn important as yours.
3. I know prescription drug abuse is out of control but that doesn’t mean that doctors should get stingy on prescribing narcotics to people who genuinely need them. I am lucky, I don’t have that problem and my doctors give me what I need to help control my chronic pain. However, my cousin has the same painful disease as me and her doctor will give her nothing but Tylenol so she suffers in great pain. It breaks my heart!!!
4. Emergency Call Backs on weekends. We get it…it is the weekend and you are busy relaxing & spending time with the family. However, a patient who is calling you after hours DESERVES a call back within an hour…not 6 hours later so you can attend the local ballet or music concert in peace. Get with it docs…you are on-call for a reason and sometimes speed is of the essence!
That is just 4 of my “gripes” for today but trust me, I could write a book on this! Got any gripes or vents regarding doctors you want to share? If so, leave your comments below!
Oh ladies…you will love my post I will be making about Health Insurance Companies! Stay tuned for that!
YES! YES1 YES! and – what? you can call your doctor on the weekend??!! Under my health system that is impossible….you wait, go to a distant walk-in clinic or the ER. I’d LOVE to be able to talk to my doctor at any time of the day or night, even weekends and even if there was a wait so I could avoid over-taxing the ER!
Yes I can relate. Before I was a nurse, a doc told me aromatherapy would help my stomach pains and I needed to de-stress. Turned out I had an ulcer. Thanks for nothing.
I used to drive kids from a school I worked at to dr. appointments and deal with the offices. I understand your pain.
Amen! I was sitting here nodding my head as I read your post. I could not agree with you more it has become a total joke going to the doctor. The sitting in the waiting room for an hour and a half makes me crazy. Oh and the not being able to talk to a real person when you call or having to go through this big huge complicated answering machine makes me want to throw the phone! Oh and the tight grip on the prescription pad makes me go doctor shopping. I had bronchitis one time soooo bad and I needed antibiotics and my doctor was out so I got stuck with another doctor and she actual told me that I just needed to drink tea and meditate and would not give me anything for it. I am still ticked off about that trip.
OH MY GOSH! Holy crap…that is terrible!!! I don’t have any type of issues when I see my specialist who has treated me for 19 years. I love her! However, when she is NOT available then I have to see “other” jokers in the group which thoroughly tick me off. Oh trust me, I have a big loud mouth and I let their asses have it when they try to pull the wool over my eyes. I don’t tolerate it.
Sigh, I wish that my specialist was the ONLY doctor I ever had to deal with. She is fabulous. I can do without the other jokers though.
Oh, I am with you and beyond! My blood pressure shoots up just thinking about this…more for my daughter. She has gone through a lot and has gotten so frustrated and fed up. She now feels at a complete loss. Going to a specialist they told her she was anemic so her regular doctor prescribed a prescription, told her to come back in a month for more blood work. She did, and the results hadn’t changed. So the nurse calls her back to say they don’t want to do a prescription but to take a multivitamin. She tells them that they put her on meds already and a multivitamin. The nurse goes to talk to the doctor, calls the next day, and says to take a multivitamin….Were they even listening or checking records??? They have all this recorded or should. Plus, she also has a thyroid problem and is on medicine for it which we just found out that they hadn’t checked in months. No wonder no one wants to go. I feel for doctors and nurses I do. The whole thing is messed up, but please take time to listen to the patient before diagnosing.
Sorry for going off. She just had to go today, and the office was closed due to electrical outage so I was very upset. I’m sorry for really going.
Congrats to winners, and everyone have a healthy happy week! 🙂
I totally agree! One time I had painful urination and pain raging in my back. A stupid doc told me I had a UTI and I told him that I did…but also had kidney stones. He told me…no, just a UTI and sent me home. The next day I passed out on the floor with blood gushing out my urethra. Hubby had an ambulance come get me and I was seen by a different ER doc who admitted me. I did have a UTI, a kidney infection and when they scanned my kidney they found 11 kidney stones that I was trying to pass. Oh…I was so pissed and suffered for so long in terrible pain!
They have to learn to LISTEN to the patient!!!
I agree that most medical practices are overbooked, overworked and spread thin. When I did my NP clinicals in grad school I worked with a family practice NP. She got to work at 6 AM to do hospital rounds, then saw patients in the office all day and then back to the hospital to do all the admission physicals and paperwork for the patients her physician had admitted that day. WAY too much for me! And she didn’t even have to take call at night! I think this is just a tiny example of why so many people going into the medical field don’t choose a general practice but instead want to specialize. To have a life. I chose to stay in the ER.
Hence…why I chose the OR. I couldn’t stand being out on the medical or surgical floors at all. It got on my nerves. I liked to clock in, do my work, clock out. Do my every third weekend on-call and be done.
These days, I’d rather see a Nurse Practitioner than an M.D., because I think the N.P. has more time and empathy for patients. But what really frosts me lately is how much influence insurers have over our health care and what services and products we can receive, regardless of what the health care provider believes is necessary.
Oh Anne, I hear you! My insurance company is always on my doctor’s ass about my medication. When I am in the hospital, I get an IV med that costs $7,000 per one week of treatment. Yes, that is ONE IV medication. The insurance company does everything they can to get her to not prescribe it to me but it is the ONLY drug that treats my disease. I hate medical insurance companies and they should have NO SAY in our care. Oh…that is going to be a new post!
WOW! Lucky you, to have a doctor who sticks to her guns and ensures that you get the medication you need. Hang on to her!
I agree completely!! There is nothing worse that having to go to the doctor’s office (except for maybe having to go to the DMV)
I am also very annoyed with unneccessary tests and questions ( having my bloodpressure taken and being weighed at the eye-doctors…)
Congrats to the winners
Wow…weighed at the eye doctors? No way!!! OMG…that is terrible! I bet they charged an extra $20 to get your weight. Geesh! That is unacceptable and not necessary at an eye doctor! Holy Cows!!!
Yes, doctor’s offices need to answer the phone and get a live person when a patient is calling. That is why I changed my doctor a few years ago because I kept getting automated calls. That is not right that your friends doctor does not give her pain medicine for chronic pain. Tylenol is not good enough. She should get a different doctor if she can!
Congratulations to the 2 winners.
I too agree that medicine is changing, often for the worse. Doctors overbook , feel compelled to be part of a umbrella practice and are sometimes afraid to prescribe narcotics.or other prescriptions because of what the Health provider might say or do. Moreover, too often the patient is just a “part” – whatever that specialty is and not a whole person and doctors don;t talk to each other about the patient’s other conditions. You see, I too have to vent!!!
I hear ya Jo-Ann! I was really disgusted a few days ago. I just hate the direction that medicine is going. Now you find 12 docs in one practice and don’t get me started on the foreign doctors who have terrible English and you can’t understand a peep that they say!!!
Don’t even get me started on this! I am a nurse in our local hospital here and believe me, it’s no easier for us! I do think they are overworked and spread thin. We actually need more doctors to spread the wealth but unfortunately, less people are going into medicine.