Bad outcomes sometimes do happen. To prevent his, the patient has to bear some responsibility:
This news just in: I am not a perfect physician. I thought I was, but I am not. When I take care of patients I sometimes make mistakes, do the wrong thing, forget to do the right thing, or don’t do everything I should.You can tell me I’m a bad physician, make me hate myself, boil me in malpractice oil, send me back to medical school for the rest of my life, and I still will not practice perfect medicine. To increase my odds of doing that I need help, but not just any help; I need my patients’ help to get it right more of the time.
In fact, as a physician I don’t just need your help with that; I need you to see that as your job as a patient. You can say that’s putting the burden of my inadequate performance unfairly on your shoulders, and call the Board of Medicine to report a quack ducking his responsibility, but I don’t care about that. What I do care about is my patients, enough to tell them I’m not perfect, and that it is their job to help me take better care of them.
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{ 9 comments }
As part of a new movement, I suggest that ALL doctors notfy their patients of this responsibiltiy. Everyone talks about empowering the patient/consumer to make “better choices”. Well, then this should be a part of it. If a lab is done, they share responsiblity in obtaining the result. If they have a medical history, they are responsible for knowing it or at least carrying it in their wallents. Their meds, it’s their reposniblity to know them at all times and keep a list. Part of the consumer healthcare movement pushed so strongly needs physicians to share some of this care with their patients. So starting tomorrow, all docs, especially those in new groups or offices, tell you patients that it’s both your responsibilities to care for him/her.
“Bad outcomes sometimes do happen. To prevent his, the patient has to bear some responsibility”
Why does ANYBODY think this will stop the Lawyer sodomite onslaught? After all, for them “it’s not personal”, it’s just business, If the Democrats win, and Conyers gets to run the House, he has vowed to do away with all Tort Reform and Limits (He is truly the Sodomite Lobbies little whore). This is a nice “feel good” comment, but what we need is a strong MD Lobby to pay off these assholes and get Tort Reform. The Lawyer Lobby increased their payoffs almost 30% this year, you think this is going to increase “patient responsibility”? (See today’s Wall Street Journal)
We all know Doctors are not perfect. A lot of Doctors, especially surgeons, just act like they are perfect, like gods and godesses to be worshipped by patients who are mere mortals.
I see this attitude an awful lot, and it’s really frustrating. “I don’t care if he looks like he’s entering the intersection in front of me. He’s the one that would be at fault if we have an accident!” We are too concerned with entitlement and principle to see that it’s clearly in everyone’s best interests to be a little cautious, even if we shouldn’t have to.
Well, I completely agree with this article. As a patient, I do have a responsibility to help my doctor help me.
I once picked up my Mom to go for a doctor appointment (prior to her alzheimer’s diagnosis) Normally, I woudl have sat in the waiting room.
When they came out to get her they said I could come back too. Good thing I did. The doc came into the room and asked her how she had been feeling. she replied ” good, I’ve been feeling real good” huh? Actually she had been complaining of a horrible backache and peeing blood for some time. She wasn’t going to even mention it to him. She ended up in the hospital with a horrible kidney infection. How is any Doctor suppose to treat something if we aren’t honest about it?
I just got called in to the office today. I got in trouble for filing a case of Elder abuse at my hospital. A family let demented grandma out of the house at 5 am. EMS found her wandering around town in her pajamas. We received her as “jane Doe”, elderly demented in pajamas. So I filed. Family wanted to know why I didn’t just call them to pick her up. It was my fault. I was supposed to figure out her name and phone number based on what, her pajama color. No-one is repsonsible anymorre. Just us docs.
I just went through something, where I ended up defending my Dr. from a specialist. The specialist said my Dr. ordered “stupid Dr., tests.” Then…he reads the reports my Dr. had sent, and conceded I needed to be there, and he had to concede my Dr. did the right thing. I love my Dr. and he has cared for me for over 20 yrs. We do work together. I know he has a ton of other pts. I worry about his work load and his stresses. It isn’t just the patients some Dr.s are under stress from.
tell the doc who referred you to the specialist. he can stop referring to that person.
I did, and went to a different specialist as well.
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