HOW MALPRACTICE LAWSUITS RUINED MODERN HEALTHCARE

When I was a child, doctors made house calls, and it was wonderful to see old Doc Sullivan walking into my bedroom with his black bag if I was sick. If he was called, it was always something serious.  Like the first time, when I had blood poisoning at age 13, and penicillin was new on the market. He diagnosed my problem without a single blood test,  And he cured me. Next time, I was 21, told him about dark urine, and he accurately diagnosed hepatitis A. The treatment consisted simply of home bed rest and a high carbohydrate diet. Within a few weeks, I was perfectly well.  I wasn’t afraid of doctors then.

My latrophobia (fear of doctors)  started when I began having scary mammograms that turned out to be false alarms. Besides several call backs, and repeat mammograms, I had at least 4 biopsies.   Now, my blood pressure (which had always been low) would skyrocket each time I walked into a doctors office.  Naturally , I’d be put on meds that brought my blood pressure so low I  nearly fainted, because I didn’t have consistently high blood pressure to begin with.    Always, my blood pressure zooms if I have to see a doctor.  My husband sees a lot of doctors (fortunately he doesn’t have latrophobia ) and it seems to me that they often  hit the alarm button over some little symptom.   As an example, one night we went to a 24 hour clinic for my husband’s dizziness, and the doctor suggested we go to the hospital for a brain scan.  Nope, didn’t go, and the dizziness was gone by morning. That was five years ago.  Overall. though, we can’t complain  because he has some serious health issues  and wouldn’t be alive if not for his doctors.

Obviously, the doctor – patient relationship changed when malpractice suits became so popular in the 70’s that they ruined some doctors'  reputations.   Last week I read that a couple of doctors are suing patients who gave them bad reviews on Yelp.  And many hospitals email you a survey after each doctor visit , asking your opinion of your doctor.  How could anyone evaluate a doctor based on one visit?

So now, doctors and patients are skittish unless they’ve known each other for a long time. New statistics show that doctors only listen to their patients for 11 seconds! Doctors are leery of new patients, so they order all kinds of expensive tests that scare the patient to death, because they want to defend themselves against a lawsuit in case something goes wrong. Something very sacred has been lost.   My parents would never have dreamed of suing old Doc Sullivan, even if I had died from blood poisoning. They knew he was doing the very best he could, and that’s all that could be expected.  Modern medicine has come a long way, but sometimes, I wish we could go back to the old days.

TOO MANY MAMMOGRAM SCARES

Almost  every adult has been through at least one mammogram scare.  This affects not only women, but the men in their lives who love them and share the worry.

Here’s how it works: you calmly go in for what is called a routine mammogram.  Let’s say you have no family history of breast cancer,  you’re relatively young, so you’re not really worried about the results.  Then, the next day, you get that scary call that there’s something not quite right and you need to come in for another test. This might be on a Friday afternoon.  So now, you must get through a miserable weekend, worrying about the  results.  Then, even if you go back on a Monday, it may be Tuesday before you are given an all clear diagnosis, because of course, a very busy radiologist must read every x-ray.  And if a needle biopsy is recommended, the wait and worry can go on for another week.

And now, you're always going to be stressed out before your next mammogram. Talk to any group of women willing to share their thoughts, and they’ll  tell you that once they’ve had a “bad” mammogram, they’re nervous wrecks days before and after they have their next one. Also, the more needle biopsies you have, the more likely there’s scar tissue or calcium deposits that will trigger another abnormal finding. And many times, the patient learns that a mere wrinkle in their skin caused the concern. 

Modern technology has done a better job of screening, with equipment that’s reduced the dreaded call backs by approximately 40%.  But that leaves the other 60% going through way too many false alarms.  Consequently, many women decide to stop having mammograms at all.  Surely, the system could be improved, so that the waiting time is never more than 24 hours when there’s a problem with your mammogram.