As an occasional artist this is so real.
“Hey wanna read my new poem? I brought my own bag, I’ll pay credit.”
I am old enough to remember having a doctor who made jokes like this. Nowadays doctors are expected to maintain a hectic schedule of nonstop appointments and they barely have even enough time to maintain a high quality of care.
Not to say that doctors like this don’t exist anymore, but they seem less common to me.
If we focused less on corporate profits and more on care, we would have more pleasant experiences.
My doctors are nice for the most part, but do seem much more rushed than years ago. All our medical facilities have been consolidated under 2 huge regional hospitals, so we have a duopoly at this point, so we get what we get.
My wife started working at one a year before they got bought out (they were our last independent provider) and there were many immediate changes to do more with less.
It’s somewhat efficient, as my visits now seem to go, “how are you feeling and what do you want from me?”, which if I know is ok, but if I just know I’m sick, I feel I either get a blanket of tests to do a shotgun approach on diagnosis, or I get given a medicine with not always as much time to go over pros, cons, or basic questions as I’d like. It feels much less personal and closer and closer to just doing telehealth, which again is fine for when I know what is wrong and what I need, but losing that difference is disappointing to me.
Many of my docs seem disappointed as well, since the turnover is huge, especially back a few decades. I used to have the same doctors my whole life until maybe the last decade, and now I’m lucky to see the same person for a second year.
My pediatrician would talk and chatter with my mother.
My doctor has 15 minutes and 10 of those was trying to find in their computer what I had done recently medical wise.
I think I remember a scandal when the UK’s NHS was paying for homeopathic medicine, but when they looked at the statistics, they found the patients had good outcomes going there. (I believe they went to these homeopathic practitioners in addition to the normal doctor.)
And that looking at it deeper, what the homeopathic medicine actually offered was somebody who the patient could chat with for a while, in addition to the placebo effect. Because that time sitting and chatting about your medical problems and things related to your medical problems was actually very important in improving outcomes.
Still one of the main reasons why France still pays for that shit IIRC. Also because Boiron has pretty good lobbyists and employs a bunch of people I guess.
Turns out listening to patients lowers their stress and that helps people!
I’d like you to have it. Please, I insist. So… What do we think is a fair value, $100?
Depends on your insurance
