To get the diagnosis right
I have to wonder about how much money we’ve already spent trying to diagnose and treat her.
I have to wonder about how much money we’ve gone through being wrong…How much less would it cost to get her diagnosed correctly the first time.
Why is it, that testing and screening cost what they do?
Shouldn’t they – by virtue of the fact that they are the most emphasized aspect of medicine – be the cheapest aspect of medical costs? It seems like there is an artificially constricted supply. Where is the cost efficiency in laboratory medicine?
I got a bill the other day for a “radiographic procedure”…
It was $800 and because I have good insurance I only had to pay a $25 co-pay. Others aren’t so lucky.
Why exactly, does it cost $800?
Why exactly, is medicine as an industry forcing individuals into bankruptcy.
I’d submit that twenty years from now this will all be looked at as short-term greed that prevented progress, both in terms of medicine and research. I’d like my children to be proud of my contributions to medicine – both from a fiscal as well as a humanitarian standpoint.
From what I’ve been able to gather – being a doctor means juggling three separate, related, yet at times antagonistic professions.
First, you must be a healer – you must cater to your patients to a certain extent. You cannot just ignore your patients complaints and questions. And you must question your patients – interrogate them really. Many patients don’t seem to understand that the more questions a doctor is asking you, the more personal the questions, the more unrelenting, the more critical and suspicious the doctor is of what you tell them – the more they are actually trying to figure out what is happening. The more a physician can dig into their patients while conveying that they care, the better patients tend to think of a doctor, regardless of what they cost… Most patients only see this side of medicine. They don’t see the other two aspects.
Second, a physician must be a policy advocate/expert. It’s not enough, professionally, to just diagnose and treat their patients, they need to advocate for systemic change to make sure that the medical industry (it makes me cringe to call it that, even though that’s EXACTLY what it is) is improving in terms of the value it offers its’ patients. The medical industry should be doing EVERYTHING it can to make sure that not a single patient goes uninsured and therefore untreated. The medical industry should be doing everything is can to make sure that the price of medications don’t force people into untenable decisions about the relative value of heat or food. The medical industry should be doing everything it can do to ensure people are exercising.
Third, a physician is expected, at least in academia to contribute to the state of the art. The physician is supposed to add knowledge, and share it with the rest of the profession. Physicians are expected to practice constantly and add the knowledge they gain through case reports, clinical studies, and if they are so inclined, through basic science research.
But we OWE it to the people who’ve entrusted us with the unique privileges that we have to actually figure out what is wrong with people and to help them, sooner than later.
I’m all for being a physician, but the system that i’m going to be practicing in is already broken and I hope, for my sake, and for the sake of my future patients it gets fixed before too much longer.
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