I contacted a resident doctor in Internal Medicine for a teaching hospital and asked if he’d be interested in becoming my doctor (PCP). My note briefly described my background in health outcomes research as well as of my prescription medications. He wrote back that however be honored for being my PCP, and stumbled on as professional, humble, and sincere. A new doctor-patient relationship was formed, and I contacted my existing doctor’s office to prepare for my medical records to become transferred, which immediately informed that office that I have to be dissatisfied on and on to a new doctor. I also distributed to the resident doctor confidential information from my medical records along with a copy of 1 of my professional presentations at the health care conference.
A department administrator then contacted me to express the resident doctors will not be available daily of the week for clinic and usually are not even here after they do their ICU rotation. Also, the Internal Medicine department protocol may not allow the resident doctor to write down me a drug prescription for off label use. Finally, she was concerned that previously I have ordered and correctly interpreted my own, personal blood tests. The administrator’s attitude reflects one of many chief complaints Americans have with the medical care system: the device is coming at them and requiring these to get health services in certain predefined structure that the facility is accustomed but which eliminate any possibility of individualized treatment in line with individual patients’ needs.
Apparently the administrator wouldn’t spend enough “careful consideration” to acquire her facts straight. I do not need to visit my PCP daily and even monthly. My reputation shows I saw my existing doctor once inside a calendar year, as well as the prior doctor before him I saw once in the 15-month period. So the administrator based her decision by herself ignorance in the facts.
She also misstated facts concerning off-label prescriptions for drugs by resident doctors. One from the drugs were talking about is Clomiphene. Both a resident doctor with an attending faculty physician for the teaching hospital advised me that they will be willing to publish me (off-label) prescriptions because of this drug, and also the attending physician did indeed phone in a very prescription for one of many drugs within my request. Similarly, the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN) advised me that their doctors, both resident and attending, have prescribed Clomiphene to patients. Therefore, residents in Family Medicine and OB-GYN (both primary care departments) can write prescriptions for Clomiphene, but “protocol” prevents residents in Internal Medicine (also primary care) from writing off-label prescriptions. What kind of a cockamamie rule is the fact? What, the residents in Internal Medicine are far too dumb or too naive to be aware of off-label advantages of medicines?
Finally, I had planned for my resident PCP to order and interpret blood tests each and every time I visited him. The administrator can have learned that fact if she had bothered to call or write me before jumping to conclusions and interfering around my doctor-patient relationship. I strongly reject the Director’s paternalistic look at medicine where she feels she’s got to protect resident doctors from patients who order or interpret their very own blood tests. These resident doctors are young pros who have completed their medical degrees; they don’t really need paternalistic oversight coming from a department administrator telling them who they’re able to and cannot invite to become patients.
Apparently, a massive number of patients visiting this teaching hospital’s doctors want for being told how to proceed and how to feel. I am the opposite; I take personal responsibility for and manage my own, personal health, and that is strongly advocated under medical reform. Having a more equal, collaborative relationship with my PCP works well with me, knowning that seems being the true reason behind the administrator’s interference. Studies show that wrongful death rates drop that has a non-paternalistic model of heath care treatment services. That fact of reducing litigation risks is pushing more medical systems throughout the country to migrate with a non-paternalistic model.