Thursday, July 30, 2009

Can the government make my doctor pay more attention to me than her computer?

I am a healthy active 26 year and I am grateful to have health insurance through my employer. But I rarely use it. The last time I went to the doctor I had an appointment scheduled for 11am. I arrived early, but ended up waiting until 11:45 to be called in. After which I was lead to a cold, sterile room and was told that my doctor would be in shortly to see me. But she never did; see me. I waited for another 45 more minutes, and the doctor came in, introduced herself and sat down in a chair on the opposite end of the room from me and she faced the computer. I thought to myself, “The computer is not sick I am!” She then asked me questions and fervently typed into the computer. She barely looked at me, she hardly touched me, (except for with a cold stethoscope) and she made her diagnoses wrote me a prescription for something and sent me off to the pharmacy. I felt cheated. The computer got more attention than I did. I won’t go back unless it’s an emergency. When I was a kid the doctor use to comfort me, talk to me and offer me that very potent physiological medicine of attentive listening, gentle appropriate touch and genuine concern. Doctors need to remember they can make us feel better, as well as cure us. I am for health reform! But it needs to go beyond insurance companies, and health plans, the whole culture of medicine needs to change. Doctors need to see patients as people not machines.

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