Comments on: Doctors spend more time on social work than medicine

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:04:14 +0000

I agree completely with above. Doesn’t this make you feel like quitting medicine and doing something more satisfying.

By: Okulus

Okulus — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:57:09 +0000

Trench:

Specialists get these requests too. when I receive them, I make it clear that these are administrative services subject to my administrative service fee scale and which cannot and will not be submitted to an insurer since it is not for clinical services. Payment is prepaid and substantial enough that everyone understands that time is money.

By: TrenchDoc

TrenchDoc — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:45:05 +0000

Brad,

I had a son of one of my patient’s create a major uproar when I refused to see his mother after 3 pm on a busy Friday afternoon to fill out her nursing home papers. He was just “too busy” to bring her in any other time.

By: TrenchDoc

TrenchDoc — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:41:39 +0000

Nuclear Fire,

Unfortunately, I was a newbbie and had been trained that all Neurosurgeons were Gods and that since I was only a lowly internist, I should submit to their demands.

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:49:59 +0000

As a physician with a hospital and a private practice, I can tell you this type of thing goes on in both places. At least in the hospital, I have medical social work help. Recently, I saw an outpatient as a consultation in order to fill out driving forms. His regular physician couldn’t get him in soon enough.

By: Nuclear Fire

Nuclear Fire — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:17:20 +0000

@TrenchDoc: Please tell me you refused?

By: jsmith

jsmith — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:37:22 +0000

Osler was Canadian, not American.

By: TrenchDoc

TrenchDoc — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:24:43 +0000

Many years ago I got a Saturday morning hospital consult from a older Neurosurgeon. After I rushed up to the floor to do the consult, I read his note “Reason for the consult: fill out nursing home forms”. This is now the real world for primary care docs: filling out forms designed by lawyers for little or no reimbursements.

By: Steve Parker, M.D.

Steve Parker, M.D. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:44:41 +0000

I bet ER docs and nocturnal hospitalists can avoid nearly all those hassles, focusing on diagnosis and treatment of sick folks instead.

By: DrV

DrV — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:28:51 +0000

The Osler story is charming. In the 19th century we treated symptoms, in the 20th century we treated diseases, in the 21st century we’ll preemptively diagose and predict disease. Throw in the admin hassles that you describe and it leaves us to wonder what is the role of a primary care physician? I suspect that the role of physicians in the next generation will be unrecognizable to the current population of docs.