Don't physicians deserve a little pedestal?

Commentary. By Eric Anderson, MD, amednews contributor. Oct. 10, 2005.

COMMENTARY

Observations on the state of medical practice and medical life

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It was depressing. I went into Discount Tires, some time ago, to get a slow puncture fixed, only to be told my tires were so bald I needed four new ones. But what was depressing wasn't the bill they were giving me but what I already had in my hand: A waiting room copy of U. S. News & World Report, with a special report on "How to be a smart patient."

There's obviously nothing wrong with having our patients' being better informed. Surely both sides of the stethoscope benefit when our patients understand their health care needs. But what the doctor-patient relationship doesn't need is the cynicism patients develop when they read this adversarial fluff in popular magazines.

At about the time U. S. News & World Report was encouraging its readers to challenge physicians even though "it's tough to go up against godlike powers, to confront someone viewed with reverence, who can exacerbate illness or offer cures. It's hard to take on the almighty" and so on, a Gallup Poll gave the public's opinion as to which professions or occupations had the most integrity. I recall nurses came in first at 79% followed by grade school teachers, pharmacists and military officers. Medical doctors came in at 67%. We were, however, ahead of car salespeople.

Think about that percentage for a moment. It means when our patients enter our offices they feel they have one chance in three that the doctor who attends to their problems will lack integrity!

Something is going very wrong.

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