Doctor Feelbad

I don't like hospitals, and I'm not too fond of doctors either. There's something so wrong with today's medical setup. Most people want a doctor to be extremely quick about diagnosing what's wrong, but to still be very human and warm when talking to the patient. With the amount of stress and work put upon these people, it's nearly impossible. That's why so many nurses do a great deal of the work now. The doctor only makes a cameo.
I, for one, never felt a need to go into medicine. A lot of people, when they were kids, talked about how they would be a doctor. I never did. Personally, I do everything I can to avoid seeing a doctor or going to the hospital. If I can fix the problem myself (and this goes all the way to bone sticking out of the skin), then I'll do so. Why? Because in my experience, the doctors I have seen have all been pompous and annoying. If the doctor is a surgeon, hell, that's a great quality, because it means they think they're great and probably are. If you're in general medicine, however, and you work with people, I don't care about speed, I care about personality. It's the personality of the doctor I have been seeing that makes me want to switch.
When I first moved to Minnesota, I had an awesome doctor. She (yes, I saw a female doctor) had a quick wit, a great sense of humor, and actually knew how to talk to people about their ailments. However, she couldn't deal with the clinic's ever-changing policies, so she left for Chicago one night. I was passed off to her replacement. We'll call him Dr. C. At first glance, he appears to be a nice Jewish boy from Minnesota. However, over the course of three years, he has gone from nice guy to royal pain in the ass. Let's start with our first meeting.
I had to get a physical when I applied for graduate school as my undergrad had lost my medical records (not so much lost as thrown away, but whatever). At first, he seemed nice. I missed Dr. S, but I didn't say anything as that would be rude. However, little bits of his real personality appeared during our first meeting. When we started talking about our pasts, he was not thrilled with the fact that I was not a native Minnesotan. He then started telling New Yorker jokes. You've heard most of them. His were essentially Polish jokes with New Yorkers as the butt of the joke. The jokes weren't what bothered me. It was the fact that he was hurt when I didn't laugh. Honestly, they weren't funny.
Fast forward to seven months later. I had an ear infection and was very sick. Like I said, I really hate doctors and hospitals, so I waited until I knew that my own immune system couldn't beat the sickness. The first thing he says to me? "Why did you wait so long? You think you're a tough guy or something?" Now, remember that I have an ear infection and am very sick. Dr. C ends up thrusting his medical tool very hard into my ear (maybe he was having a bad day) and pushes on my ear drum pretty hard. Any guesses how that felt? You in back? Damn straight it hurt. When I yelped, his response was, "Ohh. So you're not really a tough guy?"
The most embarrassing moment, however, and the reason I am changing doctors came at my last visit. I was getting another physical and the clinic was swamped with people. The whole Asian Bird Flu scare was sweeping the nation. So Dr. C's patients were all coming in scared. I was not scared, and I was not there for that, so I was relegated a room that faced the parking structure. In some ways it was nice, because I had sunlight in the room, but I also had people parking and waving at me. Dr. C came in, obviously still concentrating on his other patients. "Take off your pants," he barked at me. He went to the window, so I really thought he would close the blinds, but he didn't. I asked him if he would, and he told me, "I don't have the time, let's go." So, I was given a prostate exam in front of a few lucky people who were parking their cars. I just waved and smiled thinking to myself, "This is the last straw. I am so ditching this guy."
The real final straw came when he saw my wife after her allergic reaction. After looking at her chart and talking to her for a few minutes, he went into the hall, and, in a loud voice, he made rude comments about her to another nurse. That is a no-no. Again, I don't care about speed, but I care about professionalism and courtesy. When you are making fun of your clients, that's when you get dumped.
The other reason I thought about this is that when I was in St. Louis for my renunion, I was shocked at some of the people who had become doctors. One girl, in particular, used to be a roommate of my wife's. This girl was a stone cold bitch. When my wife was single, this roommate used to like rubbing that fact in her face. She had no people skills, but she wanted to work with children. Now she's a gynecologist. Honestly, I'm shocked anyone would see her. She had really cold hands ("I have poor circulation," she would say) and a cold personality. Not really the kind of person you want handling you newborn baby.
As for hospitals, I dislike them, because, to me, they have always represented where people I know go to die or have to possibility of dying. After my father had his triple bypass, I used to walk him around the wing he was staying in to see the other patients and to get him some exercise. Hospitals should be about hope. They're helping people to live longer, but as we walked around the rest of the patients didn't give off the vibe of hope. The place smelled of death. Next to my father was a burn victim that they said probably wouldn't survive. I listened to a doctor explain to a family how their mother was losing the battle with cancer and would be dead soon. There was no hope, except for my father. Of course that's because he's the kind of guy who would (and did) try to be the world's first heart surgery out patient (but that's for another post).
In the end, the problem with medicine now is that it is about money. Here in Minnesota, the hospitals have been placed into a tier system. If your insurance company covers everything, then any hospital is open. However, if you only get X amount of money then only hospital A-C and maybe D will take you. I don't care about the co-pay to see my doctor, but it's amazing to me how much things cost. I can by Benadryl for $2.85 at Walgreens, or I can see my doctor and get the same thing for $25. It's a racket. It's the problem with medicine. Doctors and insurance companies have stopped seeing us as people, and now look at us in terms of dollars and cents.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I fear the day that I have to have surgery and right as they are about to work on me, they stop because I am two bucks short.
With my parents getting older and with family members being in and out of the hospital recently, I can only hope that the next generation of doctors realizes that being likeable is a necessary part of the job. You don't have to be liked, you just have to be likeable. Make it more about the people and less about the money.