Fool Me Once...

When last I ranted about a recent trip to the doctor's office (dermatologist, to be precise) you heard about the pathetic, controlling nature of the doc's administrative nurse out front. This "health care professional"(and I use that term loosely) stated that their office policy was to not allow couples in to see the doctor together. Ridiculous, I know... and it was proven so when my lovely bride questioned the doctor about this. He said, "Of course your husband can be in here!"

Well, today was follow-up day. Marvelyne has had two stitches in her nose the last eight days from a biopsy of a questionable area; not to mention two non-stitched locations on her right leg where samples were also taken. Yours truly had one spot removed from his back. As all good dermatological offices should, the combined four samples were biopsied - and all came back as benign. Whew!

Now, let me explain a few other things...

When Marvelyne first made the appointment, it was primarily to discuss an area on her temple that we were concerned about. This was explained to the nurse before the doctor entered the exam room. Once the doctor came in, he looked at a couple of areas and then ordered the tests. When Marvelyne began to ask him about the area she was concerned about, he refused to even look at it, and said, “That’s enough with these other three today. Come back in six weeks and we'll look at that one."

Folks, what does this say to the patient? If you're wondering, I'll tell you what it says to me, the patient (well, the husband of the patient):

"Yeah, it could be cancer, but we're not going to mess with it for another month and a half. In fact, I'm so unconcerned with it, I'll not even examine it, much less take a sample to be sure, but I'll have you inconvenience your schedule, worry yourself sick and come back later so I can charge you for another office visit! Won't that be fun?"

Did he really say this? With the exception of the money talk... yes. More or less, his attitude is one of disregard for his patient's feelings, time and finances. This is EXACTLY why this dermatologist will not, in fact, get Marvelyne's appointment in six weeks. Does any patient want to be treated by a doctor who disrespects these highly important aspects? Negative, ghost rider.

So, we'll search out a new doctor. And if you've had opportunities to be treated as less than human by physicians – take the matter into your own hands. Be fair, but be fair to yourself, too-patients are customers. If the physician does not offer good patient care, then it should be viewed as a restaurant offering less than adequate customer service. I encourage you to respect yourself and be treated as the valuable patient you are.