doctor's office gripe

[Fruit Sucker]

I hope this is in the right place. I need to rant about the decline of professionalism in doctor's offices. I went in for my regular appointment the other day, and my old doctor isn't there anymore. There's a new guy. He looks like he's twelve years old, and he won't stop playing with his phone. He even answers a brief personal call while I'm trying to give him my medical history. He asks me the same questions 3-4 times each in this bored tone. He does no physical assessment. I wanted to scream at him, "can you put your d*** phone down and touch me for a minute?"

He refuses to refill me for antacids and says they are "for long term use only". Apparently he thinks if you just stop taking a medication for a problem, that problem goes away. He's also reluctant to refill me for Flonase. He asks if I blow my nose (duh, I have allergies) and then tells me to stop blowing my nose because it is causing me to need the medication. That's right- if I stop blowing my nose, then I will no longer have allergies. Brilliant. Someone must have warned him about all the drug seekers out there trying to score antacids and steroidal sinus sprays.

It seems more and more that this is the way- crank the patients through and charge their insurance. No interest in the patient whatsoever.

[wanderlustnurse88, RN]

I'm so greatly to have a great doc. I work with her (small town) and when I go into her with an issue, I usually have some suggestions and she listens to me and explains things. It's hard though when you don't get to choose who you doctor with.

[rnsheri]

I don't know what's wrong with these "professionals". I don't know if it's the get-em-in-ship-em-out mentality, apathy, or what. I don't have a GP for this reason. My last contestant stood across the room from me while I tried to show her my red, swollen hands. I wanted labs, and I wanted an ounce of compassion. She didn't come near me, so I must've looked especially contagious that day. I told her my hands had been hurting for over a year and the pain was progressing. "I don't do pain control before labs," she told me. I didn't say one dang thing about pain control. Even nurses get scared when no one can tell them what's wrong. It took two hours to get in and 5 minutes for her to dismiss me. I fussed about labs so I got them. She pulled out her phone a second later, mumbled something to the nurse, and was off. No farewell, no promises to get in touch. Sweet thing, that one. I thought about her touching that phone and how glad I was that she didn't care enough to put a stethoscope to my chest. I had to go up to the office again to get my lab results. No one figured they needed to reassure me that my hands weren't falling off, I guess. Well, guess who never thought about medication interactions? Rhabdomyolysis.

Trust me, if I find a physician that listens, examines, and treats me a little better than a dead squirrel, I'm keeping him/her. Until then I see a handful of specialists and go to the Doc-in-the-Box for acute sinus infections and the like. Those people have been surprisingly kind. They, like, even make sure I have lungs. I also see an NP for thyroid medication.