Comments on: Op-ed: Social media can enhance the doctor-patient relationship

By: Derek

Derek — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:54:39 +0000

Most our contacts are on Facebook but I nonetheless prefer Facebook

By: IVF-MD

IVF-MD — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:27:08 +0000

From reading the comments of the public, there is general agreement that “the system is not set up” to facilitate patient satisfaction.

I would like to remind people to ask themselves is it a scenario where A) something needs to be actively done to alter the natural voluntary relationship between rational human beings and that something is not being done or B) a myriad of intrusive harmful coercive interventions are actively hindering what could otherwise be an elegant natural self-improving system

In other words, why is healthcare screwed up today? Is it because government is bad at doing good things or is it because government is good at doing bad things?

Those who believe in the moral advantage and efficiency advantage of freedom over coercion already know the answer to that.

By: WDF

WDF — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:04:52 +0000

Well said IVF-MD. But as you note, the system is not set up to facilitate patient satisfaction. And doctor performance largely gets tainted by the insurance complex whose performance is a complete disappointment to me.

By: IVF-MD

IVF-MD — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:42:06 +0000

One could argue that doctors don’t sell time. They also don’t sell knowledge, know-how nor compassion. The true benchmark should be determined by the patient, meaning they sell PATIENT SATISFACTION. And that definition is different for each patient. For some patients, this means a lot of hand-holding, answering of questions and bedside manner. For other patients, it means “get my gall bladder out”, “get me a healthy baby”, “stop this pain”.

Of course, with our current system, the wishes of the patient take a back seat to artificially coerced criteria of what constitutes “good medicine”.

By: WDF

WDF — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:18 +0000

RE:
“the only commodity physicians have is time. Doctors don’t want to introduce new technologies of unknown value, which is why something like Twitter is going to take longer to accept.”

I don’t believe doctors are selling time, and it is even worse if time is thought of as a commodity. To me, they sell knowledge, know how, compassion, among other things. I think the key is finding ways to unlock those things they do have in a way that allows them to help their patients outside of the scope of time. This is something all the professions face right now. And I wish the profession to best because we all need you.

By: EduBiz

EduBiz — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:12:08 +0000

One simple way that medical doctors could utilize modern day information technology is scheduling via e-mail. As an individual, with a background in education, I find it often rare to have 5 minutes in a 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. day to make a phone call. Several educators feel the same way, yet these same busy professionals are forced to check e-mail for updates. Thus, the office administrator/nurse could easily utilize e-mail to schedule an doctor’s appointment.
On a side note, NCLB’s confidentiality regulations are much worse than HIPPA. I worked with both, and I will take HIPPA anyday!