NYT - Dr gets VIP Treatment

[Pollyanna]

I like that Dh's institute considers you "family" if you are a relative of an employee here. There are way too many doctors in town to give everyone preferential treatment, lol. But we are very happy with the care we have received.

[spaz]

You know I didn't realize how "in" I was until I was in a large city across the country from where I lived. My father broke his femur at a family occasion. I SO wish he had been taken to the local private hospital in retrospect, but my uncle wanted to take him to the "best" hospital which was a huge teaching hospital. The orthopods and the lung docs were in arguments over how he should be treated. ( Turns out he had SEVERE COPD) My dad was doped up. I was asking questions that my husband was telling me to ask. I saw different residents every day and never saw an attending. I requested to talk to someone or have my husband talk to someone... nothing. Many of the residents didn't know the answers to my questions. Some gave me bs and some were honest that they had to ask the attending. I could not get a simple answer from anyone or from anyone that had any power.. If we had gone to a private hospital, then I would have had one doctor to talk to!!! It was SO incredibly frustrating. Then I came up and discovered that they had operated and treated him the way my husband DID NOT want him to be treated. ( Sure enough...he couldn't walk and was never able to walk again...he needed plates and screws NOT a total leg cast....) GRRR

Anyway, it definitely gave me a different take on things. I can see how frustrating it is to deal with layers of residents....

[mommax3]

I would agree that we get special treatment, and I don't feel one bit guilty about it! If there is something that makes the everyday lifestyle of being married to DH *easier*, I'll take it! Heaven knows there are plenty of lifestyle challenges inherent in making life work with DH's specialty.

I would also agree that there are perks for people in other careers as well (education was mentioned....I can think of others), so I don't think this is a medicine-only thing.

[Ladybug]

I've been thinking about this article a lot, trying to identify what bothers me the most about it. The author, personally (and otherwise), would rather experience the lowest common demonitor of health care than pay it forward. If you're receiving VIP treatment (shorter waits, etc) you are generally grateful and appreciate toward all the staff. You remember what it felt like and try to extend it into your own practice as much as possible. His article did nothing to lift the bar, only point fingers. I don't like the author and he's off my VIP list.

[JDAZ11]

I didn't appreciate his tone either. Almost like "we should all stop doing this" or "insurance companies should strictly scrutinize medical billing with respect to the treatment of physicians and their families."

It really annoyed me when I thought about the bad experiences I'd had with doctors... It is a nice thing, and maybe he just needs a few bad experiences to realize it.

[OrionGrad]

I didn't even tell them except when they asked if I was his wife - DH and I wonder if there is something that ties our medical records together or something since he works there, our insurance is through them, I don't know but it was WEIRD!

At DH's hospital, family members' charts are a different color(?) and they have extra security/privacy protection, so nurses/docs know I'm affiliated with the hospital even if I don't say that DH works there.

[ladymoreta]

I don't know... What I understood from his article was that he didn't want unnecessary testing, and he wanted to be on the floor/wing with the nurses and doctors who typically treat those kinds of injuries. I got the impression that he was trying to keep expenses down and be treated normally.

That said, I've really appreciated the professional courtesy we've received, especially in medical school and residency when money was so tight. I haven't noticed a lot of extra testing, but I've only been hospitalized with the birth of my children.

[GrayMatterWife]

Yes. I better get VIP service. Gee whizz--it's called a professional courtesy.

When I have viral meningitis , I was admitted to the NSG service.

[poky]

I thought his "I won't tell them I'm a doctor" attitude was silly, but asked DH, and apparently at CCF (where this doctor is), you won't necessarily know the patient is a clinic employee unless it's in their social history in their chart somewhere, though I would imagine the title "Dr." is probably in there somewhere. CCF is nicknamed "the world famous" for a reason, and they have SUPER-wealthy patients fly in from all over the world for care, with their entourages. For those patients, putting them on a VIP floor is as much for their security as anything else. They're not flying in for trauma, though. If he'd been SERIOUSLY hurt, he'd have been taken to Metro anyway, and unless they then transferred him to a CCF facility, his coworkers would have been much less likely to visit.

[MrsK]

While I do feel like I get vip treatment, I also think that the doctors spend a lot of time being social and talking about DrK's career during my appointments. Sometimes, I think the chatter interferes with my medical care. It's like "so nice to catch up and by the way, about my pregnancy. ...." Sometimes it can be awkward.

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[corn poffi]

If the treatment that I get is "special", I'd hate to see what the "non-special" treatment is!

[MrsC]

I think of it as professional courtesy too. There have to be some perks to the job right?! I feel like there are positives and negatives to it though. I had an excellent surgeon for my laporascopic surgery 4 months ago. But at my follow up appointment 6 weeks later, he visibly relaxed when he heard I was better. I never really thought of the extra pressure it puts on the medical professional until that moment. When I mentioned it to DH he completely understood having had VIP patients himself.
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[MrsC]

I think of it as professional courtesy too. There have to be some perks to the job right?! I feel like there are positives and negatives to it though. I had an excellent surgeon for my laporascopic surgery 4 months ago. But at my follow up appointment 6 weeks later, he visibly relaxed when he heard I was better. I never really thought of the extra pressure it puts on the medical professional until that moment. When I mentioned it to DH he completely understood having had VIP patients himself.

[spaz]

I think of it as professional courtesy too. There have to be some perks to the job right?! I feel like there are positives and negatives to it though. I had an excellent surgeon for my laporascopic surgery 4 months ago. But at my follow up appointment 6 weeks later, he visibly relaxed when he heard I was better. I never really thought of the extra pressure it puts on the medical professional until that moment. When I mentioned it to DH he completely understood having had VIP patients himself.

Yeah... it turns out the nurse/tech that helped with my surgery asked the doctor to close ( which she normally does) because she and I have gotten to be friends on all of our mission trips. She said she breathed a sigh of relief when it was over.