Seven traits of the “ideal” doctor: “confident, empathetic, humane, personal, forthright, respectful and thorough.”
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{ 11 comments }
They forget “competent”.
If you had read the article all the way through to the end, you would have seen that the authors of the study did address technical skill. Their conclusion was that technical skill is mentioned less often by patients because it is a harder category for patients to judge.
What about knowledgeable?
What about good looking? Wouldn’t that be ideal?
knows defensive medicine…
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts. If you want an ‘ideal doctor’ you should pay that doctor his or her ‘ideal fee.’
What about the flip side to this statment. As a doc i feel i should only have to care for ‘ideal patients.’ I.E. patients who take responsibility for their illnesses, pay appropriately for services rendered, respect my opinion, stay off their phones during visits, do not ask for specific medication, have a pleasant affect.
Wouldn’t life be wonderful. one can dream i suppose
Why do I get the feeling you conflate “respect” with “obey”.
I think our population has lost sight as to what a physician, whether medical or surgical, is charged with.
No reasonable person would say that politness, affability, empathy, etc. are not important, but they’re important for everyone, whether accountant, police, garbageman, or congressman.
What is the physician’s job? It’s to take the presentation of the patient, termed signs and symptoms, develop an appropriate differential diagnosis, appropriately test those diagnostic possibilities and develop/apply a reasonable therapeutic plan, whether medical or surgical. That’s it.
Doctors really only do three things; measurement (blood count, weight, Cat Scan), manipulation of physiology with pharmaceuticals (chemotherapy, antibiotics, fertility enhancement), and surgery (for either diagnosis or altering anatomy (remove the appendix or tumour or deliver the baby).
All to be done with politeness. But don’t forget the core.
“Ideal patient: Doesn’t feel the need to drink a 12 pack or shoot up before coming to the ED and verbally and physically assault me.”
Exactly how long have you been loathing/fearing your patients? And if you’re as miserable as you seem, why do you continue doing it? The money?
respect my opinion,
when you order a defensive test?
when you prescribe statins to a slim, active, healthy woman with LDL of 134, HDL or 80 and low triglicerides?
do not ask for specific medication
Even if it is the Renova wrinkle cream? One of the few equivalent drugs the patient knows works better for him/her because of past history (e.g. one type of HRT over another like the one containing micronized progesterone vs the one containing norethindrone acetate because the latter suppresses HDL while the former has no effect? or one type of two identical estradiol patches because one is smaller)?
“when you order a defensive test?
when you prescribe statins to a slim, active, healthy woman with LDL of 134, HDL or 80 and low triglicerides?”
Believe it or not, slim, healthy women have heart attacks (albeit rarely)…now let’s say for the sake of argument that this slim healthy woman had a heart attack…would her lawyer look kindly upon the fact that her doctor did not prescribe a statin when the ldl was high? He would have a field day in the courtroom…which position would a physician rather be in…piss off the patient by prescribing the statin and let the patient refuse to take it and document all, or risk the other option?
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