Jump to content

Think I need a new doctor


Recommended Posts

Afternoon all

Two weeks ago I picked up a prescription that I've been picking up for years and they tell me that my doctor wants to see me to give me a flu shot and check my blood pressure. Called the clinic and they gave me an appt. for 3:45....... Cool. When I turned up at the right time, the place was mobbed with so many patients that there were people standing along all the walls as the seating was full.

when I announced myself at the desk, they told me to go away for at least an hour and check back. This is our family doctor for the last twenty five years. I told them I'd rebook and was told next year unless I call daily to see if there is a cancellation. It's not like I live in a little town.

Has this become the new norm? Am I expecting too much? What is the sense of making an appointment?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Link to post
Share on other sites

My wife's a Nurse, so I've learned a lot about doctors offices.  1. They're there to turn a profit.  Anyone who says different is lying or full of wishful thinking.  This leads to over booking (2 or 3 people in a time slot for 1 person).    Then, as they fall behind, the stack builds and gets worse and worse.  The other issue, specifically this time of year is people have met their deductible.  This leads to more people coming in to get stuff taken care of they wouldn't have earlier in the year if they'd had to pay.  It all adds up to this being a crappy time of year to visit doctors.

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, MacStingy said:

Has this become the new norm

 

Pretty much. 

 

When I make a doc appointment I anticipate having to take at least a half-day off of work. Without fail, if my appointment is for hour X, I have to wait 45-60 extra minutes just for the nurse to see me and run me through the height, weight, blood pressure bs, and then I get to wait an additional 25-40 minutes in the waiting room for the doc to come see me. I get poked and proded for 5 minutes, and then wait while the doc goes off to fill out a script. Then wait in the pharma line for 15 minutes to pick up whatever I got.

 

This is why I don't go to the doctor unless I absolutely have to. 

Bronchitis? Bah - just a little cough.  Torn ligament? Put some ice on it. Stone arrow sticking out of my calf? Rub some dirt in it. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes, probably is the new norm, but I wouldn't blame it all on the doctors always.  Some doctors absolutely deserve the blame, but the insurance companies drive a lot too.  Primary care doctors have it rough.  I'm a surgeon and can make my living off of procedures.  Clinic is only needed to see patients before and after surgery.  As such I'm fortunate.  However, primary care doctors have to make all their money from office visits and the payout is not great.  Primary care physicians typically make about $180K a year.  A very nice salary, but when you consider that they have been in training 12+ years after high school (14 years for myself) and paid >$250K in tuition AFTER college, it's not unreasonable either (look at intercontinental airline pilots, lawyers, etc).  In order for them to do that though, with what the insurance company pays for an office visit, they have to see a patient every 6-8 minutes over 9 hours of clinic.  That 6-8 minutes isn't just time talking to the patient.  It's for seeing the patient, reviewing labs/imaging, and documenting the note.  And there's not much room with that schedule to catch up if you do get behind. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

My wife is an RN and she see's this all the time in Canada. Doctors overbook because they make money from the government for every patient they see, this is above their base salary.

 

As well, they make referrals that often are not required, because they also get a fee for making a referral.

 

She even knew a married couple who shared a clinic. They were caught submitting duplicate bills for the same patient.

 

The system is broken.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, what gets me so irate is how useless our family doctor has been all the while slapping us with a gigantic bill each time we go there. The guy is no more useful than a look up table. Everything he has said or recommended is just regurgitating what I can pull up on my cell phone while talking to him. Anytime I ask him xyz, he goes to his computer, punches in a few keywords, prints out a canned set of instructions (coming from the hospital's database) and calls that health care. I mean it is to the point that I wouldn't be surprised if handed to me a piece of paper with a URL to a WebMD page.  What a sucker. I have stopped going to his office on a regular basis. So no I don't think what he has been through justifies the healthcare he's providing to me. 

 

My son has allergies. We see an in-network allergist every year. We were there about a month ago, spent 30mins talking. Did blood work again to see if his numbers increased or decreased.  Again, it is to the point where he is citing old-wives' tales that we could try out. Nothing scientific, nothing absolute. I mean you can get much more information on forums from ordinary people and even doctors who post on these forums. I just took a look at the bill. It was fricken $5,630! Luckily health insurance covers most of it but I cannot imagine what those who are not as fortunate as we are must be going through. It's messed up.

 

I bet you could move 40% of all health care to the computers in the form of look up tables. I have respect for surgeons, advanced diagnostics, clinical health care, and statistical public health. These are absolutely necessary. But I have major issues with the rest.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I had an appt at the local Dr. at 0800hrs and showed up at 0745hrs. Doors opened promptly at 0800hrs and i was thinking "Woo-hoo, first to be seen". Wrong. I was told they were an hr behind.  Two hrs later i was finally seen. 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
On 07/12/2016 at 9:46 AM, Janissary said:

I mean you can get much more information on forums from ordinary people and even doctors who post on these forums.

 

Yup, same here in Oz.  I've been battling chronic bilateral knee pain for 4.5yrs which came on very suddenly after a minor surgery on ONE knee.  I found all the answers I needed on a forum called 'Saving My Knees', which eventually led me to a cyclist in California who had been battling the same thing.  We started communicating, and then I read the research of an orthopedic surgeon from Canada who had been investigating these symptoms for 15yrs, and discovered how ill-informed and dangerous the standard medical & physiotherapy advice is for my symptoms.

 

Took all this to my local Dr who seemed to agree and now seem to be making good progress.  Even back to a little running and cycling, plus leg strength work. 

 

If I'd not taken this info to him, I'd be on the wrong path as he would have followed the same erroneous knee strengthening protocols which make me worse.

 

It's nice not to be in bad chronic pain every day!

Link to post
Share on other sites

With regard to overbooking and waiting in line for ages - Prior to leaving for my scheduled appt, I call and ask the receptionist if the doctor is on schedule.  I tell them I've got another obligation later in the day and need to be sure I'll be out on time.   I also ask for the name of who I am speaking with as I've found in general that it tends to make people a bit more accountable and give me an honest answer instead of just blowing me off.

 

More often then not, I'm told that the doctor is running late and it might be a good idea to show up an hour later than scheduled. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well waiting at the doctor's office even though you had an appointment seems to be the norm. In the past I have waited over an hour past my appointment time. Even when they put you in the room, you still had to wait.

 

Anyway, last year my doctor changed everything. Now when you go see him at your appointed time he is usually talking to me within 15 mins or so. When this first happened I asked one of the nurses in the office what changed. She had a simple answer. No more walk ins!! If you show up without an appointment you will not see the doctor so go away. Go to the nearest clinic and see one of those doctors there. It has been great. Now when I go there I normally only see about 1 other patient waiting to see the doctor. Should be a standard I would think.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I had the same problem with my previous GP.  I would have the first appointment of the day and he'd still be an hour late.  That's just ignorant.  I asked my wife to ask her GP if she was accepting new patients.  I had her ask her GP every time she went to see her.  After about five years, Dr. M agreed to accept me as a patient.  I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes after my scheduled appointment time to see her.  Show up 10 minutes before appointment time.  Vitals taken and then into exam room.  Even on extreme occasions when a same day appointment is necessary, Dr. M is usually right on time.  The only draw back is that she is about may age and maybe a few years older and there's a possibility she could retire.  That  was the problem I faced when I was referred to the first doctor I referred to in this post.  My GP retired and she referred me to Dr. F.  He also had the bedside manner of a stinky fart in an elevator.  Dr. M and the other GP's in the clinic subscribe to the philosophy of skyhawk's GP; no more walk-in's.  If you call and get an appointment, great.  If not, there's always the Emergency Room at one of the local hospitals or you can take your chances at one of the local Urgent Care Clinics.

 

CRAP!!!!!!!!  Just as I finish writing Urgent Care Clinics, my wife comes home from her annual physical and she informs me that Dr. M is retiring in June.  CRAP!!!!  She is having a GP take over her patient files but it remains to be seen how we're going to like this new GP who is going to replace her.  Murphy's Law...

Link to post
Share on other sites

My doc is quite good, only waited once about 45 mins because of an emergency that happened in clinic. Otherwise the norm that AX365 has, also same problem re retirement; got a letter about scaling back hours, no biggie, also retired so I can live with that. No word or timetable for the doc about actually hanging up the scalpel, so waiting for that boot to drop!

Now hospitals on the other hand!?!? Several years back now went to the urgent care clinic on the advice of a tele-health nurse. She said she couldn't give a definitive diagnosis but from what I described I had a blood clot some where in my left arm, not to leave this un-attended for more than 3 hours and be at the clinic when it opened!!! I did so and luckily the long line up was 90% there for blood work! Was seen by the nurse reasonably quickly who was most distressed by my blood pressure - 212 over something!!! The doctor examined me asked if the situation was a stressor to which I answered YES! He attributed a bit of the blood pressure to this and said -"Get to the emergency ward right away!!!" I departed the clinic at about 0930 and drove to the hospital and walked into the emergency walk in area and had my blood pressure taken and appropriate facts noted. So to make a long story short (pun intended) was not seen by a doctor (I think) til about 1330!!!! I say I think he was a doctor because one of the first questions he asked was, "What makes you think it's a blood clot?" This made me pause for a few seconds to wait for him the laugh and say just kidding, which he didn't so I said another doctor & a nurse! Anyway that ended me up on 'rat poison' for a while and nothing similar has happened!!

"What makes you think it's a blood clot?" REALLY!? :angry:

Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Flyboyf18 said:

My doc is quite good, only waited once about 45 mins because of an emergency that happened in clinic. Otherwise the norm that AX365 has, also same problem re retirement; got a letter about scaling back hours, no biggie, also retired so I can live with that. No word or timetable for the doc about actually hanging up the scalpel, so waiting for that boot to drop!

Now hospitals on the other hand!?!? Several years back now went to the urgent care clinic on the advice of a tele-health nurse. She said she couldn't give a definitive diagnosis but from what I described I had a blood clot some where in my left arm, not to leave this un-attended for more than 3 hours and be at the clinic when it opened!!! I did so and luckily the long line up was 90% there for blood work! Was seen by the nurse reasonably quickly who was most distressed by my blood pressure - 212 over something!!! The doctor examined me asked if the situation was a stressor to which I answered YES! He attributed a bit of the blood pressure to this and said -"Get to the emergency ward right away!!!" I departed the clinic at about 0930 and drove to the hospital and walked into the emergency walk in area and had my blood pressure taken and appropriate facts noted. So to make a long story short (pun intended) was not seen by a doctor (I think) til about 1330!!!! I say I think he was a doctor because one of the first questions he asked was, "What makes you think it's a blood clot?" This made me pause for a few seconds to wait for him the laugh and say just kidding, which he didn't so I said another doctor & a nurse! Anyway that ended me up on 'rat poison' for a while and nothing similar has happened!!

"What makes you think it's a blood clot?" REALLY!? :angry:

That last reaction sounds like a Doc that's tired of people diagnosing themselves. Kind of like people defending themselves in court where judges aren't usually very impressed seeing the legal background they come from.

Link to post
Share on other sites

In some provinces in Canada you can also get your flu shot at the local pharmacy.  You will never see any crowds there.

 

Regarding your Doctor etc......this situation will get worse as more baby boomers grow older and need more and more medical attention.  The same thing is happening in many countries...UK, Australia, Canada and the US etc.

Link to post
Share on other sites
29 minutes ago, SBARC said:

In some provinces in Canada you can also get your flu shot at the local pharmacy.  You will never see any crowds there.

 

Regarding your Doctor etc......this situation will get worse as more baby boomers grow older and need more and more medical attention.  The same thing is happening in many countries...UK, Australia, Canada and the US etc.

Yes been there done that! But tried at a Rexall and although the big signs said "Any day; any time" when the chap in front of me in line asked for his flu shot he was told to come back tomorrow. Mind you this was the same store that couldn't figure out my Gov't insurance forms, sent me to a website where I could buy a gross!?!?!?!? Now I use a small family run pharmacy that has given me super service & now flu shots!!!!

Re the doctor situation, you're just a young pup, us old folks really gotta be worried!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...