July 16th, 2011 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Opinion
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Come on people… you know what I am talking about. Sure you are comfortable with your current doctor… after all you are still alive and kicking. Besides it has taken you years to figure out what you can safely tell your doctor and when it’s ok to speak up. Yes the fact that your doctor is often late and never seems to listen to you bothers you just a little. But you aren’t displeased enough to stop giving your doctor high satisfaction scores. After all who wants to upset their doctor? But admit it; you have wondered if there isn’t a doctor out there that would be a better fit with you. I know I have.
Doctors probably feel the same way about many of their patients. It can’t be easy everyday trying to help patients that don’t seem to want to help themselves… or who want a quick fix from a bottle of pills. Not to mention patients who habitually miss their appointments and are generally non-compliant.
How Would Changing Doctor’s Help? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
July 8th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
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It’s the cusp of a new medical year and there’s no shortage of advice on how to succeed as a house officer. The White Coat Underground and Wes Fisher will put you in the right direction. And I love Mary Brandt’s Advice for New Interns.
But just a couple of more points to keep in mind:
Keep your options open. Medicine is changing quickly. You’ll start your career training as a 20th century doctor and retire in a place none of us can imagine. Your ultimate success will be determined by your ability to adapt to a shifting foundation. Keep an open mind.
Quiet your fingers. You are the first generation to have publication tools that make it dangerously easy to breach your patient’s trust. Keep their business off the public forums. Better yet, find a way to apply all this wonderful technology to really move the chains forward. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
May 26th, 2010 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion
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What if the average patient (person) knew what healthcare insiders, providers and expert patients know?
Take the process of looking for a new personal physician. Conventional wisdom tells people that when looking for a new physician they need to consider things like specialty, board certification, years in practice, and geographic proximity. Online services like Health Grades allow you to see and compare the satisfaction scores for prospective physician candidates.
But industry insiders know different. Consider those patient satisfaction scores for physicians. In reality, “one can assume that the quality of care is actually worse than surveys of patient satisfaction would seem to show,” according to a 1991 lecture by Avedis Donabedian, M.D.:
“Often patients are, in fact, overly patient; they put up with unnecessary discomforts and grant their doctors the benefit of every doubt, until deficiencies in care are too manifest to be overlooked.”
Given the constant drumbeat about the lack of care coordination and medical errors, it would seem that some people (patients) are beginning to reach the breaking point alluded to by Dr. Donabedian. The empowered among us are starting to compare physicians (and the hospitals that employ them) to a higher standard — a higher standard that reflects the nature and quality of the medical services physicians actually provide. Empowered patients today are “being taught to be less patient, more critical, and more assertive.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
Come on people… you know what I am talking about. Sure you are comfortable with your current doctor… after all you are still alive and kicking. Besides it has taken you years to figure out what you can safely tell your doctor and when it’s ok to speak up. Yes the fact that your doctor is often late and never seems to listen to you bothers you just a little. But you aren’t displeased enough to stop giving your doctor high satisfaction scores. After all who wants to upset their doctor? But admit it; you have wondered if there isn’t a doctor out there that would be a better fit with you. I know I have.
