I'll be the first to admit that we as doctors are far from perfect. Unfortunately, the way the system is set up, we all too often resort to the "here, take this" route. There are many days where I have more than 10 patients per hour scheduled. If everyone showed up, that's 6 minutes per patient. In those 6 minutes, I have to quickly review the chart, find out what is going on, what's new, do a physical exam, make my treatment decisions, write prescriptions or referrals if needed, fill out any forms that the patient needs, fill out insurance and billing paperwork, and document the events of the visit in the chart. It's a pretty daunting task to complete in 6 minutes. If it takes me a couple of minutes longer, I'm late for my next patient who is not very happy to have been kept waiting. Not that I'm making excuses, but you can see why sometimes, resort to doling out meds. I like to think that I listen to all of my patients needs and give them whatever time they need to talk about their issues. Do I run behind schedule? Just about every single day. I hope my patients understand that although they may have to wait a little longer, I'll take the time to listen to and address their needs. Now it's not like, I'm raking in the cash doing all this. I work about 18 hours per day, 6 days per week on average and I'm struggling to pay off the $200,000 in medical school loans that I have accumulated. I'm certainly not complaining ... I knew what I was getting myself into when I applied to med school. I just think it's important understand sometimes why you have to wait when you go to the doc, and why sometimes your doc seems rushed. The number of patients I see per day is dictated by insurance companies, etc.
I know we as docs get a bad rap, sometimes very well deserved, but speaking for many of us, we try to do the very best we can for each and everyone of our patients within the current health system framework.
Ok, I'll end my rants now. Sorry for hijacking this thread.
