Gifting Doctors

[Anonymous]

Doctor who takes good care of you is simply doing his/her job. I come from a country where corruption is so rampant that no-one lifts a finger unless they are compensated for it with personal "gifts". Lets not go down that slippery slope. Next thing you know you'll be stashing dollar bills in your underwear to tip docs and nurses for every little thing they do for you. And if a doctor accepts a gift from a patient, I'd steer away from that doc. The line is just too fuzzy and they don't even know it when they cross it.

[Anonymous]

Agree that the gift thing is a bit much, but let's not forget, these guys are not getting paid a great deal for the services.
My OB got $1600 to take me from conception to 6 weeks post partum. TOTAL.
But I still would not gift, the relationship is strictly professional.

[Anonymous]

My OB certainly is not financially hurting. Always dresses in Faconable from Nordstrom and wears very expensive watches and glasses. I feel he does quite well as an OB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's appropriate. People give gifts to their real estate agents, etc. Why not to a doctor who you found supportive and caring?

Give a gift to your real estate agent? After they just collect a 3% comission? I think when I fork over a 15K check for plopping a sign down in my yard, putting my adderss in the MLS, printing some cheesey borchures, running some newspaper ads, sitting around an open house collecting more clients, and doing some contract negotiations is enough of a gift.

Even if they do cart you around to look at houses they get a great comission for it.

I'm a sales rep and my clients never give me gifts for taking their money. My gift is a big fat comission check at the end of the quarter. I then in turn send them gifts at holidays, dinners out, or tickets to games/events. A gift from them? Ha!

I personally sent the nurses station a gift after my delivery. They make little moeny and work their tails off for not enough salary.

10:28, you are not alone. My doctor should be giving me a gift for giving him my business. We just have it all backwards.

Our real estate agents (both times we bought a house) gave us gifts for using them. Personally, I think that's the way it should be.

I did not give a gift to my OB or MW for the births of my children. I felt my care was wonderful and I appreciated them both...but they were doing their jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My OB certainly is not financially hurting. Always dresses in Faconable from Nordstrom and wears very expensive watches and glasses. I feel he does quite well as an OB.

You sure it's not his wife supporting him?

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who is a local doctor, and she says that many patients seem to have this need to feel very close to their doctors - like they are the "special" patients. Which, she thinks, leads to things like gifts.

For this reason, I would never give a gift. Also, I think it's crossing certain boundaries that shouldn't be crossed.

[Anonymous]

It is totally not allowed, docs can not give patients gifts for being their patients

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My OB certainly is not financially hurting. Always dresses in Faconable from Nordstrom and wears very expensive watches and glasses. I feel he does quite well as an OB.

You sure it's not his wife supporting him?

That would be hard since he's not married. He also lives around the corner from us in McLean in a not so shabby Langley neighborhood. He's just fine and not suffering due to low insurance payments.

[Anonymous]

I'd say that the type of gift really matters here. Seats for a Wizards game on the floor under the basket? No. Bottle of wine? No. But something that can be enjoyed by the whole office -- food, plant, flowers, etc. would be fine.

[Anonymous]

I think 20:02 hit the nail on the head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My OB certainly is not financially hurting. Always dresses in Faconable from Nordstrom and wears very expensive watches and glasses. I feel he does quite well as an OB.

You sure it's not his wife supporting him?

That would be hard since he's not married. He also lives around the corner from us in McLean in a not so shabby Langley neighborhood. He's just fine and not suffering due to low insurance payments.

Then he is working his tail off or not accepting insurance. I work for an OB office, at 12 deliveries a month, which is a lot, the revenue comes to $19000 per month. That has to pay my salary, and two other peoples, plus malpractice at $6,000, plus rent. There are other sources of income that come to about $7,000. That gives our doc about $11,000 per month to take home. Your doc must be spending all of it on fancy clothes and the house. Hope he's paid off his student loans
That's no income to brag about in DC. I tell my kids to stay clear away from medicine.

BTW, we like modest office gifts like pop corn, not personal gifts.
Let the kids draw a picture for a card. That is always cute. A picture of their new sibling or the deliver room. We gets laughs from that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My OB certainly is not financially hurting. Always dresses in Faconable from Nordstrom and wears very expensive watches and glasses. I feel he does quite well as an OB.

You sure it's not his wife supporting him?

That would be hard since he's not married. He also lives around the corner from us in McLean in a not so shabby Langley neighborhood. He's just fine and not suffering due to low insurance payments.

Then he is working his tail off or not accepting insurance. I work for an OB office, at 12 deliveries a month, which is a lot, the revenue comes to $19000 per month. That has to pay my salary, and two other peoples, plus malpractice at $6,000, plus rent. There are other sources of income that come to about $7,000. That gives our doc about $11,000 per month to take home. Your doc must be spending all of it on fancy clothes and the house. Hope he's paid off his student loans
That's no income to brag about in DC. I tell my kids to stay clear away from medicine.

BTW, we like modest office gifts like pop corn, not personal gifts.
Let the kids draw a picture for a card. That is always cute. A picture of their new sibling or the deliver room. We gets laughs from that.

Sounds like you should have gotten an MBA instead.

[Anonymous]

Geez typical of dc people to get nasty when someone does something nice--god forbid it might start a trend and then they too might have to do something. I sent my OB's office a basket of fruit and treats and I did it because I was thankful for a lot of wonderful service. Miss Manners would tell some of the haters that when someone gives a gift it should be accepted in the spirit it was given and not judged--for me the spirt was a huge thank you and I have no regrets. In my own profession (PR) I have been sent flowers by clients who wanted to say a special thank you and I too was surprised and happy and didn't think anyone was having some kind of ulterior motive. As for hubby who complained--my instinct tells me that he is cheap as the cheapest people tend to get annoyed when other people do nice things and then try to turn around the sweet gesture.

[Anonymous]

My father is a doctor, not an OB, and has periodically received gifts from patients and their families. We were always thrilled that our dad received a gift like that because we felt like his patient understood how much he cared about them. We gave everyone gifts when we had our child -- doctors, nurses, office staff, etc. We do the same thing whenever anyone in our family has any sort surgery or major procedure. We also bring donughts or pizza or cookies or some other kind of easy to eat food for the floor nurses every time we visit anyone in the hospital -- we leave it at the nurses' station and say "this is from Mrs. XXXX, your patient in room 123"

What on earth is wrong with kindness, gratitude, and generousity a) generally and b) for the people who helped give you the gift of your child(ren) and/or health?

[Anonymous]

Nothing wrong with being kind and generous. But I'm in the camp of not gifting health-care providers. Doctors are supposed to take care of you. Gifting is NOT supposed to be expected and be a "good manners" thing. When you go through the time when some procedure is done to you or your family member, you shouldn't have to worry about gifts and what lack of them might "cost" you. Your modest gift might get laughed at or taken as an insult, or your over the top gift might be taken with a bad taste: there is just so much to be read into the whole gift-giving when health and sometimes lives are at stakes... Makes no sense to me. Maybe after some time have passed and you still feel compelled to acknowledge an exceptional job your health-care provider had done, it will be nice to send a note, some small personal thing, or a letter to his/her supervisors praising them.