Being A Physician Patient
I’ve completed four years of medical school, four years of residency and have over ten years of clinical experience. I’ve learned it’s far more difficult to be a patient than to be a physician. And how incredibly broken the American healthcare system truly is. Today, I was scheduled for a follow-up post-accident because, although I’m much better, I’m still experiencing neck pain. Normally I would do this sort of thing on one of my precious half days. Unfortunately the doctor was only available on two days, neither of which was my half day. So I took a sick half day to attend to my own health. I arrived forty minutes prior to my appointment time. The receptionist handed me a 12-page pamphlet to complete. Among all the other questions, I had to put a dot anywhere I had pain and had to rate each dot on a scale and describe if I was improving or worsening. Paperwork took me almost twenty minutes to complete. I was roomed fifty minutes after my appointment time. I have been on