This new role of the patient and some of the issues with doctors that people bring to me lead me to ask a question. When you go shopping, would you continue to shop in a store where you're dissatisfied with the product or the attitude of the sales associates? I think not. Why? Because we don't spend our hard earned dollars on unsatisfactory products or bad customer service. Thus, when we consider that a patient is a consumer, a customer of health care services, I would propose that if we aren't receiving the medical care we feel we need, it's time to purchase those health care services elsewhere.
Patients as employers...
In a way, as consumers of health care, we are also employers. We employ our doctors and other health care professionals to help us manage our health in the best ways possible. If you're an employer, you'll be following this thought easily. If not, let's take the example of hiring a housekeeper. We may look in the phone book and hire a housekeeper in that fashion. We're entrusting a housekeeper with the precious possessions in our homes, so we probably check references. The housekeeper is accountable to us, not the other way around. If he or she isn't doing the job we expect them to do, we fire them. Why should it be any different with health care providers? It's not our precious possessions we're placing their hands, but our lives, literally. It's not just our prerogative, but our responsibility to hire the doctor we feel most qualified to handle our care and fire him or her if our expectations aren't met. Obviously, that's not to say that we have any right to be demanding, unreasonable or disrespectful. The point is this:
"Optimal health care can be achieved only when patients are educated about their health and patients and physicians work together as treatment partners in an atmosphere of mutual respect."1
Why we don't change doctors...
Some of us are reluctant to change doctors. We feel that it indicates failure, either on our part of the doctor's. We don't like confrontation, don't want to hurt the doctor's feelings, or just don't feel up to any conflict when we're already not feeling well. When a doctor/patient relationship doesn't work, it's not necessarily a sign of anyone's failure. Regardless of it being a professional relationship, personalities are involved. Purely and simply, no matter how wonderful a doctor is, he or she is not the right doctor for every patient. Don't think of doctors as higher beings. They're not; they're only human. Certainly, if a doctor just doesn't have the experience and training to handle a particular case, they're not the right doctor for that patient. But there are other circumstances under which excellent doctors may not be the right doctor for us. Here are some examples:
- When the doctor's practice is very large, and there isn't much time to spend with individual patients to answer questions, etc.
- When the doctor is in a clinic setting, and we don't always get to see the same doctor.
- When the doctors personality is "all business," and the patient needs the comfort of a better "bedside manner."
- When the doctor has "run out of ideas." It happens. In any problem-solving situation, a "fresh set of eyes" can sometimes bring a new perspective that changes the dynamics.
