Your Doctor is Human!
Your doctor is human! That’s right; he or she goes home at the end of the day and might have a family or other aspects of their life that they need to tend to... just like everyone else. What does this mean for you, the patient? This means that while your doctor is likely highly trained in their field and may seem robotic at times, there is no perfect algorithm that will result in you being healed of every condition that you may have. For example, if you attend your doctor for one condition, but don’t tell that doctor about other seemingly unrelated symptoms, you might miss out on a correct diagnosis. Yes, doctors are trained to pick up on queues that might lead them to ask a certain question in your health history, but this is more of an art than a science. If your doctor is like some that my patients have told me about, they are quick to diagnose, prescribe a treatment and move on to the next patient. Statistically doctors make a diagnosis within the first couple seconds of your appointment.
So does this mean that everyone is out of luck? Of course not It only means that you need to be selective in your choice of doctors. While I personally want the smartest and most accomplished specialists for my patients, there is also a certain personality that I look for when referring my patients out of the office. While I don’t expect these doctors to think about my patient when they go home to their family, I do expect them to take an interest in their case. This may require some outside time spent by the doctor to make decisions about the diagnosis and course of treatment for the patient. It is important for a doctor to have a passion for medicine and wellness, but it is even more important for doctors to have a passion for people. I believe we can call this compassion. Please find yourself a doctor that has compassion.
