Starting to distrust doctors and find most to be smug

[Anonymous]

I never used to have this problem. But lately I am beginning to be distrusting of most primary care providers. I’ve never had an issue with any specialists I’ve seen.

My primary care providers have either abruptly left, not paid attention during my visits, talked over me, been demeaning, and overall just smug and rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never used to have this problem. But lately I am beginning to be distrusting of most primary care providers. I’ve never had an issue with any specialists I’ve seen.

My primary care providers have either abruptly left, not paid attention during my visits, talked over me, been demeaning, and overall just smug and rude.

Do you see MDs for primary care? I stopped seeing doctors and now see NPs and PAs and stopped having this problem. However I feel like primary care especially is a profit-optimization machine rather than focused on patient experience, so I have low expectations.

[Anonymous]

Yup.

I'm guessing you are a woman just now entering middle age? Welcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never used to have this problem. But lately I am beginning to be distrusting of most primary care providers. I’ve never had an issue with any specialists I’ve seen.

My primary care providers have either abruptly left, not paid attention during my visits, talked over me, been demeaning, and overall just smug and rude.

Do you see MDs for primary care? I stopped seeing doctors and now see NPs and PAs and stopped having this problem. However I feel like primary care especially is a profit-optimization machine rather than focused on patient experience, so I have low expectations.

Yes, I have been. But I’m starting to think maybe I should see a NP instead. Do you find they listen to you more? I’ve seen PAs before after I had orthopedic surgery and the surgeon could not always meet for my follow-up visits and those were always good experiences. I agree with your last sentiment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yup.

I'm guessing you are a woman just now entering middle age? Welcome.

Yes. 38/f
This sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup.

I'm guessing you are a woman just now entering middle age? Welcome.

Yes. 38/f
This sucks.

I don't know, I am a 40 something woman with a lot of ailments, questions, and complaints, and on average I've rarely had this experience. The few times I did, I left and easily found a new provider who was more down to earth.

[Anonymous]

54 - never had this problem.

[Anonymous]

Mine have been polite but crazy.

One somehow caused my free checkup to cost $400.

The second has a radio show and mainly cared about that.

The third wanted to pretend I had diabetes so my insurance would pay for an injectable diabetes drug that causes weight loss. So, insurance fraud to get a lot of shots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never used to have this problem. But lately I am beginning to be distrusting of most primary care providers. I’ve never had an issue with any specialists I’ve seen.

My primary care providers have either abruptly left, not paid attention during my visits, talked over me, been demeaning, and overall just smug and rude.

Do you see MDs for primary care? I stopped seeing doctors and now see NPs and PAs and stopped having this problem. However I feel like primary care especially is a profit-optimization machine rather than focused on patient experience, so I have low expectations.

Yes, I have been. But I’m starting to think maybe I should see a NP instead. Do you find they listen to you more? I’ve seen PAs before after I had orthopedic surgery and the surgeon could not always meet for my follow-up visits and those were always good experiences. I agree with your last sentiment.

I've been seeing two nurse practitioners for specialists and they've been far better than the doctors.

[Anonymous]

I never cease to be amazed by the doctor hatred on this board. You’d rather entrust your health to someone who never went to medical school or trained in a residency. Just astonishing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never cease to be amazed by the doctor hatred on this board. You’d rather entrust your health to someone who never went to medical school or trained in a residency. Just astonishing.

+1. I think Dr Google has encouraged patients to diagnose themselves. When the doctor (who went to medical school) doesn’t agree, he deemed incompetent. Another concern of mine: Med Express is not a PCP. It is imperative to find a doctor that YOU trust. If you only have annual appointments, this process will take awhile.

[Anonymous]

I'm an RN and prefer NPs for my PCP. Dh and DS also see NPs. I really do think part of the MD burnout is because of how PCP is set up. Med school is long and expensive and in the grand scheme of the MD world, they don't make much. The system is set up to see as many patients as they can a day in order to make money. And dealing with the general public burns you out as it is.

Nps who go into a PCP do it because they want to. And while the schooling is hard, its not as expensive and time consuming as MD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never cease to be amazed by the doctor hatred on this board. You’d rather entrust your health to someone who never went to medical school or trained in a residency. Just astonishing.

+1. I think Dr Google has encouraged patients to diagnose themselves. When the doctor (who went to medical school) doesn’t agree, he deemed incompetent. Another concern of mine: Med Express is not a PCP. It is imperative to find a doctor that YOU trust. If you only have annual appointments, this process will take awhile.

On the flip side, in 2004 I went to my PCP saying I was exhausted (I was just out of college). He rather snidely said, "Well, I'm sure you've been on the internet researching...what do YOU think you have?" I walked out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an RN and prefer NPs for my PCP. Dh and DS also see NPs. I really do think part of the MD burnout is because of how PCP is set up. Med school is long and expensive and in the grand scheme of the MD world, they don't make much. The system is set up to see as many patients as they can a day in order to make money. And dealing with the general public burns you out as it is.

Nps who go into a PCP do it because they want to. And while the schooling is hard, its not as expensive and time consuming as MD

Yeah, those Florida NPs were really pushing themselves intellectually.

https://nurse.org/articles/fake-nursing-degrees-sold-florida/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an RN and prefer NPs for my PCP. Dh and DS also see NPs. I really do think part of the MD burnout is because of how PCP is set up. Med school is long and expensive and in the grand scheme of the MD world, they don't make much. The system is set up to see as many patients as they can a day in order to make money. And dealing with the general public burns you out as it is.

Nps who go into a PCP do it because they want to. And while the schooling is hard, its not as expensive and time consuming as MD

Yeah and just wait until they miss something important or you get really sick or they screw up your medications. I’m an MD and spend about 1/3 of my time correcting and undoing the mistakes of NPs and PAs who practice without supervision. It’s crazy that this is even allowed. I’ve worked with absolutely wonderful NPs and RNs as part of a team, inpatient. But allowing them to practice independently unsupervised on the theory that 85% of medicine is “routine” is insane. 15% of the time it’s not. And even in that 85%, only the best ones know when they don’t know and are wise enough to say so. So much invested in proving that medical school and residency are somehow superfluous to the practice of being a doctor.