Sometimes You Have to Fire Your Doctor
I want to caution you to not expect perfection from your doctor; he/she is only human. Do find a doctor who does their best and is willing to work with you not against you. Your healthcare providers should be your allies. Do keep in mind that not only can you fire you doctor, but your doctor can fire you. Both the patient and the physician need to be respectful of each other and work together on your healthcare needs.
It is hard for us to change routines and changing your doctor seems to be a daunting task, but sometimes it is necessary. There are the oblivious reasons: You have moved; changed insurance providers and your doctor isn't on their lists; your physician retires, quits or is too sick to continue with their practice. Occasionally, we need to make a change because we have had a bad experience or found several problems with the doctor we see. That is the focus of this article.
Reasons to look for another physician:
• Does the doctor or his staff want to sell you expense exclusive products? If you are hearing you just can not get well if you don't buy from them, it's time to leave.
• The physician lets his/her staff interrupt to discuss topics not related to your care when he/she is in the treatment room with you. Know that you deserve to have your doctor's undivided attention when you are being treated.
• Your doctor often takes telephones calls not related to you or your treatment while he/she is supposed to be caring for you. Again, you deserve his/her undivided attention.
• You keep finding surprises in your bill. You should always get an itemized bill, each entry should be already known to you. An office that keeps over billing you, or keeps making mistakes can not be trusted.
• If your physician gets angry when you do research to verify or clarify what he/she tells you; it's time to find another doctor.
• Same goes if he/she dislikes you asking questions. If you are not allowed to ask questions so you can understand what he/she is saying; then why are paying for this kind of service?
• If you are in the waiting room an hour or more, then sit for a long time in the examination room for two or three minutes of time with the doctor; please take the time to find another doctor.
• Does your physician interrupt you when you are explaining why you are there? Is he/she so impatient that they don't have time to listen to you? Why put up with that kind treatment?
• Your physician just can not remember what is your medical condition and treatments. There a file full of information about you. There is no reason why he/she can not look the information up and be aware of what you are being treating for, what progress has been made and what you discussed in previous visits.
• You have the right to a second opinion or third for that matter. Does your physician get upset at the idea? They shouldn't.
• Tries to manipulate you. If you hear words come out of your doctor's mouth like "I've been a doctor for x number of years and I know best." As I told one doctor, "I agree, you do know more about the human body in general, but I'm with this body 24/7 I know it better than you do." Remember this is a partnership, the doctor and you work together.
• The doctor's manner is cold, unfeeling or rude. A doctor like this needs to either get training in customer service or stick to doing research where he/she do not have to interact with people.
• Doctors need to give their patient eye contact. If your doctor spends most of his/her time in the examination room with his/her nose in your file and doesn't acknowledge your presence there is something wrong. I fired a physician once, because he never looked up from the file even when he was asking questions. It made me very uncomfortable.
• If your doctor and his staff are disrespectful. There is no reason why anyone should be put up with bad behavior from their healthcare providers.
• Tests are ordered and you do not understand why, nor are you given a photocopy of the test results. The doctor is supposed to work with you not over your head.
• If your health care provider will not share information with specialists you visit, there is a problem. These physicians are supposed to be partners in your healthcare. If someone is withholding information it can affect your health. Do not put up with this kind of behavior.
• The doctor doesn't want friends or family members in the examination room with you. Why, what's he/she got to hide? It's your personal information they will be a witness to and it is your decision whether you have someone with you.
• If your doctor obvious dislikes you, talk to them about it. He/she is only human; it is easier to care for someone you care about than someone you do not. If you can not clear the air, please find someone else to be your physician.
The relationship between you and your healthcare providers should be comfortable and based upon trust. If that trust is broken or just never given; you are with the wrong physician, start looking for another one today. If you do fire your doctor and feel you must contact him/her do it by letter; be profession just tell them you are changing your care to another physician effective on such and such date. If you are not comfortable with explaining why you are changing there is no need to go into any more detail. However, if you can please indicate in your letter, using a calm professional manner why you decided to change healthcare providers. Why a letter? If you go in person to fire your doctor, you may be charged for an office visit.
If have a reason I haven't listed for firing your doctor, please let me know. I'm interested.
Related articles:
For information on how to find a new doctor, see my article on AC "Tips for Finding a New Doctor" (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/337403/tips_for_finding_a_new_doctor.html).
To know what to bring to your next doctor's visit, see my article on AC "Getting the Most Out of Your Next Doctor's Visit" (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/314018/getting_the_most_out_of_your_next_doctors.html).
Published by Genie Walker
Genie Walker is an amateur photographer, gardener, philosopher who also needs to write to feel complete. She supports her writing habit by working as a Librarian and a Reiki Master III. Her articles cover... View profile
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17 Comments
Post a CommentI fired my doctor today when he refused to prescribe medication for something he knew was going on for 3+ weeks.
He would not do blood tests for my illness until I insisted, and then when I brought up ideas on what disease it could be, he said "In my 20+ years of practice, I've never seen [xxx] in a 40-year-old."
When the tests came out negative, he was "pleased", but still showed no concern for my pain and suffering and lost time at work.
One time when I told him I was allergic to Avelox and that it caused me to faint, he said "that can't be -- something else must have caused you to faint".
He rarely spent more than 10 minutes per visit, and just stood there silently, waiting for me to give a nonverbal sign that it was okay for him to leave, but rarely asking questions or listening.
He came from a research background and doesn't deserve to be with patients.
Good Article. My son was bullied by doctors. The doctors fired him without discussing their reason for doing so to see if there was a reason for the thing they objected to. They did not provide help for him even when it was obvious that he was getting worse. In a small community doctors put you on the black list as they are backing each other, so you are unable to change the doctor. He was severely depressed. After years of this kind of treatment my son on March 14th killed himself as his hopes of ever getting better were gone. I consider these doctors negligent. They seem not to have the responsibility for helping patients. When and how is this going to change? A grieving mother.
Ha, I was just about to write an article on this subject. You did an excellent job!
I like your idea on how you can "fire" your doctor, makes a person feel like the doctor is working for them and getting paid because of them, they are not doing a favor, it is their job, and a patient has a right to choose who they want to employ. Great job!
Very good article, so true I've dealt with this before myself, good and very bad doctors!!!
Awesome article! I had to fire a doc once because she just could not remember what I was coming in for. Once I told her it was the pain and she asked if I ever had heartburn. I said "Of course I have. I'm a mom!" She diagnosed me with acid reflux and sent me home. LOL I didn't say I had heartburn all the time.
This is good stuff Genie. I have really struggled with this issue for some time now. Thanks for sharing!
Waiting...that is my biggest issue- long wait. This happens to me a lot...but sometimes my HMO is the one to be blamed more than my doctor :(
I totally agree with you! Great article!
Unfortunately, the military doesn't allow that. You go to whom you are assigned or you don't go at all.