long and boring
Jun. 18th, 2004 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorBecause I forgot to post it when it happened. I have a story about sexism is health care.
When I first started looking for a new GP I was looking for someone who might actually want to help me with my overall wellbeing. I found a doctor who advertised with similar language , so I called his office. He's not accepting new patients. So I started looking again. During my search I found many of the doctors who were accepting new patients and were GP's were female. I thought about it for a bit. Why shouldn't I go to a female doctor? What I care about is their knowledge, ability, and how well they interact with patients. The best luck I've had with any healthcare professionals were nurse practitioners, who happened to be female. So I decided what the hell, I'll take whatever physician seems to be able to take the time to learn about my case.
I called a local practice and asked to schedule an appointment with a physician that is taking new patients. The receptionist transferred me to a schedulers voice mail. The message said they returned *all* calls by the end of the business day. Since it was 11am, I left a message. Since it was Friday and I had other things to do I decided to stay up and wait for the call. The day passed. No return call. The entire week passed. No return call. The following Friday I decided to make a nuisance of myself and started in earlier. I did finally get a call back.
It was the most unusual conversation I've ever had trying to schedule an appointment. The woman on the other phone started out with "Do you know this is a female doctor?!" I explained that it really didn't matter to me as long as she was a good physician and took the time to communicate with her patients. The scheduler then proceeded to talk me around and around to avoid scheduling me with this or the other female physician. I could get an appointment with the one male physician who was taking new patients. In fact if I opted for that choice my appointment would be in a week.
Frankly, I was amazed.
But I wanted to get an appointment and a hostile environment wouldn't be of any help to me so I opted for the one available male physician.
I went to my first visit with my new General Practitioner today. The results were mixed.
The doctor was late by about 40 minutes (for an 9am appointment) so that was not the best way to start. Although I was required to fill out a form detailing all kinds of things, I'm not sure he read it.
I get the distinct feeling that medical best practices now require physicians to ask about certain things. But the payment model of health care requires them to process patients quickly. The result is that they ask questions but will take the easiest way out of the answer. I have a couple of examples from today's visit. In the form they had checkboxes for "do you suffer from" and in the Psych section I checked depression. I get depressed. It's not severe (well, not most of the time) and I've built a homemade toolbox of countermeasures. But I checked the box. I seemed plenty upbeat during today's visit, so the physician didn't ask about it. The standard question "do you use alcohol" is always asked by docs these days. He asked. I said, "occasionally." He dropped it like god's hot potato. I answered that way on purpose. If he had asked a follow up I would have told him my use, which falls well below what most medical literature says is bad. But he didn't ask a follow up to a very vague answer. He also asked if I exercise. I replied my work is very active so I don't seek regular exercise out of work. The natural follow up would involve asking about aerobic and strength exercise (retail you can be on your feet all day but not get any strength and many jobs don't provide true aerobic exercise even if they wear you out). He made no follow up.
I brought up my undiagnosed gluten intolerance. He was familiar with the term, but after talking with him I have to conclude there would have been no chance in him diagnosing it had I met him a year ago. He didn't know much about the blood tests. I actually know more about the blood tests and I haven't even read that much.
Anyway, the results were fine but not spectacular. He was quite happy with my cholesterol test results from May. He made no mention, positive or negative, about weight or heart rate. By all reasonable measures I've been able to fine my weight is somewhere between ideal an ideal. My resting heart rate is somewhere not quite down to the marathon runner point, but it's close. My blood pressure was borderline, but that may be because the room was freezing and I was shivering as he took it. When I had it taken in May it was on the low side of normal.
Generally he made it clear if I want a specific test or a referral or have something he can prescribe a drug for he'll be happy to help me. When it comes to helping me learn about the complicated system that is my particular body or finding solutions to non-generic problems, he doesn't seem to give two shits.
Overall, I'm in good health, but I didn't learn anything from a licensed physician that I didn't already know.
Last night while I was eating my lunch my temporary crown came out with a decided crunch. I'm not scheduled back to the dentist for ten days. I'm debating whether to go in early to get one stuck back on or just do without. Right now I'm leaning to without.
When I first started looking for a new GP I was looking for someone who might actually want to help me with my overall wellbeing. I found a doctor who advertised with similar language , so I called his office. He's not accepting new patients. So I started looking again. During my search I found many of the doctors who were accepting new patients and were GP's were female. I thought about it for a bit. Why shouldn't I go to a female doctor? What I care about is their knowledge, ability, and how well they interact with patients. The best luck I've had with any healthcare professionals were nurse practitioners, who happened to be female. So I decided what the hell, I'll take whatever physician seems to be able to take the time to learn about my case.
I called a local practice and asked to schedule an appointment with a physician that is taking new patients. The receptionist transferred me to a schedulers voice mail. The message said they returned *all* calls by the end of the business day. Since it was 11am, I left a message. Since it was Friday and I had other things to do I decided to stay up and wait for the call. The day passed. No return call. The entire week passed. No return call. The following Friday I decided to make a nuisance of myself and started in earlier. I did finally get a call back.
It was the most unusual conversation I've ever had trying to schedule an appointment. The woman on the other phone started out with "Do you know this is a female doctor?!" I explained that it really didn't matter to me as long as she was a good physician and took the time to communicate with her patients. The scheduler then proceeded to talk me around and around to avoid scheduling me with this or the other female physician. I could get an appointment with the one male physician who was taking new patients. In fact if I opted for that choice my appointment would be in a week.
Frankly, I was amazed.
But I wanted to get an appointment and a hostile environment wouldn't be of any help to me so I opted for the one available male physician.
I went to my first visit with my new General Practitioner today. The results were mixed.
The doctor was late by about 40 minutes (for an 9am appointment) so that was not the best way to start. Although I was required to fill out a form detailing all kinds of things, I'm not sure he read it.
I get the distinct feeling that medical best practices now require physicians to ask about certain things. But the payment model of health care requires them to process patients quickly. The result is that they ask questions but will take the easiest way out of the answer. I have a couple of examples from today's visit. In the form they had checkboxes for "do you suffer from" and in the Psych section I checked depression. I get depressed. It's not severe (well, not most of the time) and I've built a homemade toolbox of countermeasures. But I checked the box. I seemed plenty upbeat during today's visit, so the physician didn't ask about it. The standard question "do you use alcohol" is always asked by docs these days. He asked. I said, "occasionally." He dropped it like god's hot potato. I answered that way on purpose. If he had asked a follow up I would have told him my use, which falls well below what most medical literature says is bad. But he didn't ask a follow up to a very vague answer. He also asked if I exercise. I replied my work is very active so I don't seek regular exercise out of work. The natural follow up would involve asking about aerobic and strength exercise (retail you can be on your feet all day but not get any strength and many jobs don't provide true aerobic exercise even if they wear you out). He made no follow up.
I brought up my undiagnosed gluten intolerance. He was familiar with the term, but after talking with him I have to conclude there would have been no chance in him diagnosing it had I met him a year ago. He didn't know much about the blood tests. I actually know more about the blood tests and I haven't even read that much.
Anyway, the results were fine but not spectacular. He was quite happy with my cholesterol test results from May. He made no mention, positive or negative, about weight or heart rate. By all reasonable measures I've been able to fine my weight is somewhere between ideal an ideal. My resting heart rate is somewhere not quite down to the marathon runner point, but it's close. My blood pressure was borderline, but that may be because the room was freezing and I was shivering as he took it. When I had it taken in May it was on the low side of normal.
Generally he made it clear if I want a specific test or a referral or have something he can prescribe a drug for he'll be happy to help me. When it comes to helping me learn about the complicated system that is my particular body or finding solutions to non-generic problems, he doesn't seem to give two shits.
Overall, I'm in good health, but I didn't learn anything from a licensed physician that I didn't already know.
Last night while I was eating my lunch my temporary crown came out with a decided crunch. I'm not scheduled back to the dentist for ten days. I'm debating whether to go in early to get one stuck back on or just do without. Right now I'm leaning to without.
