*Discussion Topic: Navigating Depersonalized Health Care

Dani,

Thank you for beginning this topic! I want to start with that and wishing you well. I know things are hard for many of us right now, and you as well. Thank you for continuing with caring for all of us here with everything you do each day. This place is a light to me on days of darkness and you and the moderators are to thank for that!

I am very blessed with my doctors. My PCP I knew on a professional level before the pain issues drove me to seek her help. I had been her patient for 10 years before CP took over, and with knowing each other from a doctor/patient and outside of that relatinoship, it helped her to see the change in me. So many doctors see us only at our worst which doesn't allow them to see us as the typical person some times. When I was an MA, I can remember seeing patients outside of our office in our small town, and not recognizing them easily because they were feeling better than when they sought out their cardiologist.

My pain management doctor I had actually spoken to on the phone several times in the job I had to leave with CP. I didn't realize that until he brought it up. He brings up not just the pain, but how things are at home, what you do each day, diet, exercise, your pets and coping skills. He touches family issues too. He takes at least 30 minutes with each of my appointments and I know he has other patients that take longer. When my surgery issues came up, he was available by phone many times to answer questions.

What makes or breaks a doctor's office is the staff! If you walk in an office and constantly see unhappy faces who treat you with no respect or worse yet, as though they are doing you a favor, are you likely to continue to seek treatment from that doctor or practice? No one can have staff that are constantly perfect, that is an unrealistic idea, but the happiness or willingness of the doctor's staff to help you says much about the doctors who practice there. I know both at my PCP and PM doctor, there are men and women who have been there for years and are kind and helpful. There are some who are there for a while but are not as nice, and the ones who are rude are quickly removed from the payroll.

Doctors don't have it made either. They work hard and long hours with some heavy responsibility. They don't know all, though some of them pretend to, and many times must make decisions based only on someone else telling them how they feel. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes at any time. I have been treated by both good and bad doctors, ones who listened, ones whose only thought was to get me out of the office as fast as possible.

What I see as obstacles are not just doctors but nurses, support staff and administrators. We are all being rushed out of an office, an appointment, therapy, a hospital room. Healing from an illness or surgery isn't the same for everyone. Telling one woman who has had a C section that she gets 3 days only in hospital because that is what every woman gets is ridiculous. What if she has complications? What if there are issues? Why have we come to a point where we put time limits on healing and health? I know with my experiences, I don't heal or bounce back as quickly as others do, and it drives me crazy. I have to fight my insurance and in the past my doctor to be heard that something was still wrong and going on when they were ready to dismiss me from treatment because the healing time was up. Its no different in PT or water therapy. If you continue to get benefit from it, it should continue, right? But it doesn't, because someone, somewhere decides that you aren't making enough "progress" to continue paying or that simply they will no longer pay for it.

Somewhere along the way it became all about making money and not about improving the health of others. It is now a business, being a doctor or in healthcare, and not an aspiration to make life better.

I am getting down off my soapbox now. Sorry that I took up so much space!
Mindy