I fired two doctors in the past year. In each case I asked for my medical records and never returned. Both doctors were part of a large, multispecialty group that seemed to have an assembly-line philosophy of care; my appointments seemed to take less time than a drive-through car wash.
Although I was merely annoyed with my doctors, my friend Sally, a 41-year-old medical-office manager, experienced an incident that could have killed her. A few days after a flight home to New York from Arizona, she developed shortness of breath so severe that she made an emergency appointment with her regular physician. Although she requested a chest X-ray, her physician ignored her, diagnosing a panic attack instead. When she returned to work the next day, her physician employer stepped in and arranged an immediate visit to a pulmonary specialist, who diagnosed a blood clot in her leg. It had broken off and traveled to her lung. That condition, called a pulmonary embolism, is a hazard of sitting for long hours in a cramped airline seat, and generally shows up a few days later. It is a life-threatening emergency that requires hospitalization for treatment with a blood thinner. Fortunately, Sally's problem was caught in time and she made a full recovery.
Though the consequences for Sally were clearly more serious than they were for me, the underlying problem for both of us was that we had doctors who didn't take the time to listen. The end result can range from inadequate evaluation and treatment to a waste of time and money, not to mention increased risks, from unnecessary tests and procedures. If your doctor never seems to have enough time for you or ignores what you say, it's time to move on.
This article first appeared in the July 2009 issue of Consumer Reports on Health.
