Common practice or just plain bad medicine?

[laurasc]

I've worked in doctor's offices for over 10 years and have never seen a doctor do this before. I'm beginning to think that either I've been really sheltered or I ran into one real bad apple. Tell me what you think.

My fp is part of a medical clinic that is run like an American HMO. OHIP pays them for the number of patients that they HAVE and not for the number of patients that they SEE. (It's the old style OHIP from what I understand) Because of that they want you to see only the docs in their group and there is one on call 24/7. If one of their patients goes to another doctor outside the clinic, then the clinic loses money. I like that idea because it means that I don't have to go to a walk-in antibiotic clinic and I've never had a problem in the past.

Anyway, two days ago I woke up with sinus pain. I've had sinusitis in the past and this is what it was beginning to feel like. So I called the clinic, got the hospital locating and was told that Dr. X was on call for my FP. After an hour trying I finally got to through to the Dr. X's receptionist and told her I thought I was starting another sinusitis. She asked me my age, when my last sinusitis was (Christmas) and what my doc treated me with (Zithromax). She then told me that the doc was going to be calling in about 15 minutes and that he would probably phone in a script for Zithromax because of my history. I was stunned. This doc had never seen me before. He doesn't know me at all and here he is prepared to phone in a script on mine and his receptionist's word.

I wasn't comfortable with that and went to a walk in. (in the clinic I work, so I knew the doc already) He put me on Cefzil and Soframycin. When I got to the pharmacy, lo and behold, there was the script from Dr. X waiting for me. The :( didn't even bother calling me....instead when I got home I found a message from his receptionist telling me to go pick up my script.

Now I still feel horrid and am going to see my own FP today and he will get an earful from me. But tell me, is this common practice or simply bad medicine?

Laura

[talldollNYC]

Here in states, it is both common practice AND bad medicine!

[fergus51]

Bad medicine.

[renerian, BSN, RN]

I have never had that happen to me or my home health clients. The docs always tell them to come in. My kids Dr always wanted to see them as well.

renerian

[disher]

What motivated you call? Were you trying to get an appointment or a prescription? Sometimes patients want to try repeating an antibiotic when they have symptoms of a recurrent infection. They try the antibiotic first and if it isn't effective, they book an appointment for further assesment. It saves them sitting in a walk-in clinic waitng to get the diagnosis and treatment that is similar to what they would have got by phone.

[live4today, RN]

Baaaaaaaaadddddd medicine! Go get 'em!

[LydiaGreen]

Very bad mediicine. Signs are objective, symptoms are subjective. This doctor was allowing you to diagnose yourself... not a good idea.

[HeartsGalore]

My fp requires an appointment even for prescription refills and under no circumstances would she ever practice medicine in the way that you experienced that day.I can't see such an unprofessional practice being endorsed by the medical community as a whole. I'd run from an md like that!

[LMPhilbric]

What do you mean the doctor did the diagnosis? The receptionist did the diagnosis. BADDDDDD Medicine. I would call the Medical Board and report him. What if a pt was allergic to Biaxin and didn't know Zithromax was related? Whoops, dead pt. Oh, well. He never really saw them anyway.