Contemporary Arrogance: Medicine

When we were on vacation, one of the places that we were at for the day also seemed to be the host of some type of medical conference of which I don't really know, except that it had physicians and the medical reps and I could certainly hear their conversations, let me tell you!

The medical industry is one that is largely seen as "cutting edge" or "the best" which isn't saying that it isn't a good system, when we consider the healthcare of the rest of the world but one thing that's crazy is how we are doing things in some of the areas of it. I know that there are certainly some important things that have come out of the system but largely, after doing some reading after I heard some of the conversation going on at the conference, I realized that we made a lot of our innovations years ago and we are using them today with not a lot of innovation on that front.

The thing that really stuck out to me was one quote that I heard a doctor tell some of his fellow providers. I think this doctor was the one the company was paying to speak and seemed to be the one that the people were directing their attention to. He said something that really annoyed me and struck deep down in me.

"Don’t listen to the patient, this is what they [the treatment] need to do to make it successful."

Now before I get into some other aspects of it, one of the things that I do want to say is that sometimes, a fair amount of people will do whatever the doctor says and will not make a single peep about the care they are having or the situation they are in. We do want doctors that are very good at their craft and knowledgeable in the realm of their training, but the training isn't always in the best interest of people! This is very unfortunate because this is where a lot of issues arise. Having had a fair bit of experience ourselves with how poorly you can go through the medical system, one of the most frustrating things is the idea from this doctor that what the patient says doesn't matter, they do what the doctor says or they likely get the boot.

The doctor essentially saying that there is no alternative treatment possible for the situation they were discussing. That is where I really have a lot of issue! Every situation with a patient is definitely different and the care that my wife got was good in the situation in a way: they were excellent at making sure she wasn't going to die of anything abnormal and immediate like a stroke, heart attack or some kind of obstruction. They did excellent at that, let me tell you! What they do incredibly poorly though, are the situations where things aren't jumping out at you and making it completely obvious what's going on.

My wife had some issues that I won't go into with too many details but what it ended up being that was wrong with her body was not at all anything many of the doctors that she had seen over time even considered in the very least. It's pretty sad that we are in the situation we are in now, because there is more money in surgeries and emergency care than there is anything else. Overall health and wellness doesn't make money so it's not invested in by the pharmaceutical companies, who fund the medical schools and medical facilities. A healthy person is not a customer for these companies, for the most part, and they can't have that.

Part of what that doctor was saying was that it was about keeping the patient coming back for follow up appointments, AKA keep the money flowing and keep them coming through the door. Most of the doctors, save some very specific scenarios, should want to never see a patient again! The best thing a doctor can do is help a patient with a health situation they are in and they recover from it and then would never have to see that doctor again, save a primary care physician. This is what I think is incredibly wrong, that it isn't about the patients getting better and not coming back, but it's about keeping them coming through the door. That's absolutely not the way healthcare should be handled, that should be how a store is operated, not a place where you go for your health.

The system is certainly designed to be something where they need people to constantly come back instead of stop in for what they need, receive it then get better and never come back. This doctor was more interested in keeping the patient coming back into his office than he was for taking care of their issue.

It's terrible how the best healthcare in the world is not really that good. What a crazy situation we are in!