This is why I dislike (big city) family practice

[LifetimeDoc]

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Unfortunately, this is indicative of a system wide problem. The rising cost of medical malpractice insurance for physicians coupled poor reimburstment by insurance companies etc. forces FP to see more patients i.e. spend less time with each patient. HMO's also offer incentives to not order as many test to keep cost low. This, to me, does not say anything about the skills of physician but rather of our health care system. We need to start rewarding primary care doctors for the time spent with patients. The current system reward those that can see the most patients. Good primary care may wind up saving us a great deal in the long run. Just my $0.02.

Well, remember that many private insurance companies aren't in this business for the long run. They could care less about the health of their customers, and are more concentrated on keeping their stock prices or profits up in the short term. They don't expect to be in business 10 years from now, so they could care less if little Johnny has medical problems in 20-30 years.

 

[lilnoelle]

noelle,
when you scheduled your appointment, did you request a complete physical exam, or just for the med school form to be filled out? i just got a quick exam (more than what you got though), b/c i didn't ask for a physical. i just wanted the form filled out.

I asked for an annual physical. I do wonder if the reason it was so abbreviated is that the doctor knew the reason I needed the annual physical.
I remember getting much more complete physicals back when I was at home in high school. We had to have an annual physical to be in sports and the doctor used to have me run in place for a few minutes and then check my heart rate in addition to all of the normal stuff.

 

[rianah]

I agree with you all about doctors not spending enought time on physicals. I have had similar experience.

Regarding taking your kids to the doc - I think the reason they were not thrilled is because they do see cases where the mom ends up spending a lot of time in the exam room while the staff ends up baby sitting. I volunteer at a local hospital in the ER. I had to babysit an entire afternoon because a mom came in with a 5-year old and ended up staying for 11 hours. No one came to care for the boy. He was a very lively 5 yr. old and I was drained by the time my shift was done! I have also seen a family with 3 kids came in for the mom's 4th (!) delivery. The kids were simply left in the waiting room with no adult supervision for 3 hrs. They made a lot of noise, ate the snacks reserved for patients etc.

I am sure you would've called someone to watch the kids if you had to but I just wanted to say that doctors do get patients that don't watch their kids while they get treatment.

 

[lilnoelle]

yeah, I understand that its probably inconvenient. I did ask my daycare provider to watch the kids but she told me she couldn't. It wasn't her normal day to watch them so I couldn't exactly force her to. I didn't really have a choice. It was either take the kids or cancel the appointment.

 

[Gavanshir]

What about in other less well-off areas of the world where doctors in populated areas have to go through hundreds of patients a day? Where patients from outside villages walk miles with their kids to visit the doctor and their kids' lives depend on it. Wouldn't you say that they need more of the patient-doctor relationship than a US resident who has so many other sources for support?

I think we are just conditioned to be spoiled here and there is nothing wrong with healthcare being just about health-care. The same rules for healthcare that apply to an overpopulated 3rd world country apply to US practices in populated cities. I say just be happy that you have the privilage to get an annual physical and that you are healthy as it is, and the next time you feel your doctor didn't spend long enough time with you think about what other kinds of patients that he is seeing that day who might need his care a lot more than you do.

But it's not like thats the end of the road. If you really want that kind of care, there are PLENTY of other doctors you can go see and other doors are always open for you.

 

[LowlyPremed]

Well, remember that many private insurance companies aren't in this business for the long run. They could care less about the health of their customers, and are more concentrated on keeping their stock prices or profits up in the short term. They don't expect to be in business 10 years from now, so they could care less if little Johnny has medical problems in 20-30 years.

Agreed. That's why we have a legislative body in our government. In theory, of course.