Doctor-Patient Communication Suboptimal, Part 2

When you go to see the doctor you expect compassion, kindness and time! Doctors are walking out the door while you speak. There is little time for much more. Unprofessional hurried behavior is the norm amongst many physicians, while their health care extenders - nurses, physician assistants, nurse assistants - are reported as having much more bedside manner that shows true compassion. Is it really okay to be an unprofessional professional?

Is is okay for your doctor to come in and say, "How you doing dawg?" ? Meanwhile you look around to see if you are in the veterinarian's office by mistake...without your dog. All of a sudden this middle-aged man has finally joined the hip hop now generation. A "How u doin'?" a la Wendy Williams would have been really nice.

Is eight minutes really long enough for a doctor visit? This includes only the conversation without an exam. After repeatedly interrupting you and being interrupted this decreases to three to four minutes. The doctor has just enough time to meet the objective of writing that medical note about you that you may never get to see yet it determines your destiny.

Is it okay for your doctor to admit that she is a "bad doctor" because she admits that she is not keeping a list of all the medicine samples she has given you over the years? There is no documentation in your medical records of all the current medication you are taking. "Bad doctor" by self admission raises a red flag for sure. It seems "bad medicine" is more like it.

As has been said many times, many ways...YOU are your best advocate. It is up to you to be sure that you know all the medicines you are taking and to know your complete medical history. It is up to you to be informed and educated about all of this. Waiting for your doctor may be very hazardous to your health.

by J. L. Richardson, MD family physician, patient advocate, and author of Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide, the book that tells you how to be your best advocate from medical records to medical exams to medical tests and more.

http://www.mypatienthandbook.com/
www.twitter.com/MD4U
www.blogtalkradio.com/drjfpmd

H1N1 Update

The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) has reported 593 deaths to date (compare to 170 at the end of June increasing from 17 at the end of May). All 50 states have been affected. Mass vaccination is planned starting some time in October. Over 2,800 have participated in vacccine clinical trials http://is.gd/3cVSf . Though reported to give immunity in over 90%, many are already reluctant to get the vaccine.

Thank God, H1N1 is not chicken little and the sky is not falling. Best health!

More references:

Preventing the Flu http://short.to/q651 wash hands, cover mouth when cough, consider vaccine
H1N1 map of cases around the world http://is.gd/1Kxtj


by J. L. Richardson, MD family medicine doctor, and author of Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide.

http://www.mypatienthandbook.com/
www.twitter.com/MD4U
www.blogtalkradio.com/drjfpmd

Know Your Medication Names - Brand & Generic

Please welcome, guest blogger, Ellen Richter for this post. Know your medication!

If you take a brand-name drug, you should learn all the other names for the drug. I cared for a patient last month who had been taking Plavix for a mini-stroke since 2001. He knew that he should never stop taking the drug, so when he was hospitalized, he asked his nurse what medications his doctor ordered. She told him baby aspirin and clopidogrel. He never heard of clopidogrel so he called his wife & had her bring in his Plavix. He thought the hospital wasn't giving it to him! Every day, he silently took his own Plavix without telling the staff and then was given the daily dose, in generic form, by the nurses! If only he knew the different names for his drugs! He assumed the generic clopidogrel was a new pill the doctor had started him on!

Ellen Richter, RN, CLNC is a legal nurse consultant and founder of South Florida Legal Nurse Consultant Service, specializing in medical record review.
http://www.findlegalnurse.com/index.html