Firing a sleep medicine doc...how do YOU do it?

avi123 wrote:

EricinNC wrote:Ive seen three sleep medicine doctors. The original guy I go back and forth to, but it seems like whenever I am REALLY having problems that guy is who I end up going to see. But he is not board certified in sleep medicine, he is a pulmonary specialist who does OSA on the side kind of a deal. But I am not real confident in his ability to diagnose and treat other non SBD related sleep disorders like RLS, PLMD, etc. I dont have those, but if I developed them Ive wondered if he'd catch it.

I used a second sleep doc who was board certified in sleep medicine, but was a psychiatrist by his original training. I was not impressed by that guy and I have made it a personal "rule" to not use anymore sleep med docs whose original training is psychiatry as I dont believe they have a background good enough in pulmonary/internal medicine.

I tried a third sleep doc recently and this dude I "terminated" last week. I did it hardcore, was really rough with the guy. He is a pulmonary specialist and head of a hospital ICU. Solo outpatient practitioner. He seemed apathetic and like he could care less. I originally went to him complaining about an OSA flareup, shortness of breath, chest pain, chest tightness...all symptoms I had before I got put on CPAP and came back in recent months. Because of his attitude...I wont go into the details...I told him "you are terminated." Then I sent him a certified letter trashing him, explaining my reasoning and to "lock down" his SBD records of me and to not send them to any other docs. Because frankly, I dont think the dude is worth a cuss.


Anyway, I did it kind of "gestapo" style, really hardcore. Anybody else fired a doctor in that manner before? I honestly got the feeling the guy was just trying to get my insurance money and copay, he did not seem interested in getting my problems resolved at all.

How do you fire a sleep doc? Just leave them? Be nice to them?

Eric

In my opinion you could benefit by seeing a Psychiatrist MD b/c you know nothing about picking and dealing with physicians. .

Do you really think that a knowledgeable specialists MD needs your $80 and spend 15 min arguing with your arrogance and be left with $50 after tax?

Just count the I,s and your tone of voice in your above post to realize that you really need help ASAP.

Just to stop seeing a Doc would not be enough for you b/c you need to (MUST) satisfy your ego.

p.s. so please let's cool down.

Answering your question: I keep more than 2 two MDs for each specialty. When I get annoyed with one I then go to the other. As a Medicare insured member I have no problem picking another "Best Doctor in America" and going there. I never need to explain a DOC why I stopped seeing him/her. It's self understood. If it occurred I would say that I was interested in a second opinion.

EricinNC wrote:There are many poor doctors out there who should not be practicing medicine.

SleepingUgly wrote:

EricinNC wrote:There are many poor doctors out there who should not be practicing medicine.

That's true. But in all fairness, there are lots of pain in the ass patients that I wouldn't want to deal with as a doctor. If you're a patient, you can fire your doctor. If you're a doctor, you can't ethically fire your patient except under certain, extreme circumstances. I feel for doctors who have to deal with patients who think they know more than the doctor does, and who have so little insight into the fact that they know less than nothing that they can't comprehend that some esoteric diagnosis they found on wrongdiagnosis.com has nothing to do at all with their symptoms. Yes, there are crappy doctors out there, and I've had my share of them. But there are also crappy patients too.

EricinNC wrote:As I said, I think much of it stems from health insurance issues. Behind the scenes stuff, small details you are maybe not even aware of. Patients want results, doctors want to make lots and lots of money. When they dont make lots and lots of money, they become demotivated fast in my experience. Thats why I dont care for health insurance, especially the managed care type insurance where the docs have to sign detailed contracts that dictate what they can and cannot do with patients.

SleepingUgly wrote:

EricinNC wrote:As I said, I think much of it stems from health insurance issues. Behind the scenes stuff, small details you are maybe not even aware of. Patients want results, doctors want to make lots and lots of money. When they dont make lots and lots of money, they become demotivated fast in my experience. Thats why I dont care for health insurance, especially the managed care type insurance where the docs have to sign detailed contracts that dictate what they can and cannot do with patients.

No one is forcing you to use insurance. You can go to a doctor that is self-pay, or self-pay any doctor.

On 2010 Feb. 17 I was referred to your office by Dr. [nnnnnn] for a specific allergy test. Your staff was very pleasant and I found the office easily accessible with my disabilities. For this I offer my thanks. However, not knowing better I allowed you to perform several tests that turned out to be completely unrelated to the referring physicians request including environmental allergy tests, ECG/EKG, weight management and a very uncomfortable sleep study. After more than a month of office visits and tests, money out of my pocket as co-payments and the purchase of protein powder, Medtronic provided specific test materials. The custom patch test was poorly administered and gave false positives due to being placed on top of previous allergy tests that had positive reactions. Luckily my wife and I had documented the tests with photographs and we were able to determine the false positive locations but the custom patch test had to be repeated to be sure. I am glad to report that I am not allergic to any of the materials. A report of this final testing is available for your files via email if requested.
The unwarranted tests and office visits borderline on insurance fraud. Furthermore, the referring doctor never received a report for the testing that he had originally requested. With my medical conditions I have seen a great many doctors and am under the constant care of at least two doctors at any given time. In all these years I have only had to fire one doctor. This makes the total two; you’re fired.

DavidCarolina wrote:My experience is that Doctors are generally simply not empathetic.

Therefore, if they havent actually experienced apnea themselves, they have no idea what its like.

My own situation ---I was told by numerous doctors that I just had "anxiety" previous to getting diagnosed.

And this was always said with some degree of condecension.

Madalot wrote:Sometimes, doctor and patient just don't mesh. It happens. Doesn't necessarily mean the doctor is bad or the patient is bad. Just personalities not meshing.

Many years ago, I used a medical practice for primary care. They had two doctors there, one I liked a lot, but the other one I wouldn't let touch me with a 10 foot pole. A friend moved to the area and unknown to me, had also started going to this facility. We talked and both said the same thing -- we loved one of the doctors but no way we would go to the other one.

Turned out, we did NOT like the same one. She wouldn't go near the one I liked and vice versa. We laughed about it, both saying it was probably just conflicting personalities.

EricinNC wrote:

Madalot wrote:Sometimes, doctor and patient just don't mesh. It happens. Doesn't necessarily mean the doctor is bad or the patient is bad. Just personalities not meshing.

Many years ago, I used a medical practice for primary care. They had two doctors there, one I liked a lot, but the other one I wouldn't let touch me with a 10 foot pole. A friend moved to the area and unknown to me, had also started going to this facility. We talked and both said the same thing -- we loved one of the doctors but no way we would go to the other one.

Turned out, we did NOT like the same one. She wouldn't go near the one I liked and vice versa. We laughed about it, both saying it was probably just conflicting personalities.

I agree with this. I think part of my problem now is I really just do not like the medical profession. I dont hide it IRL. Everybody around me knows I like CPAP a lot, but dont care for the doctors and the system I have to go thru to get the gear and the treatments. I think doctors pick it up and it creates a bad relationship many times. But if you went untreated for OSA for so many years and it almost killed you, its really hard not to dislike doctors and the medical profession. The medical system for me has been nothing but one gigantic hassle, in some ways the stress from dealing with the insurance, the doctors, their dumbass staff who dont care...it made my illnesses worse by increasing my stress levels.

Madalot wrote:

EricinNC wrote:

Madalot wrote:

I can understand how you feel. Believe me, I do. I have run into some of the most horrific doctors on the planet. One had me, a grown woman, crying and screaming at the top of my lungs as I stormed out of his office. I had one doctor that said there were certain things she would NOT discuss with me at all, like my Muscular Dystrophy, which made no sense because that's a major part of my medical situation. But she made it clear that it could not be brought to her at all.

Doctors are people just like you are a person. They have stresses and problems just like you. Some of them are callous jerks that don't care about patients and are in it just for the money. But not ALL doctors are like that. Some care deeply for their patients and do the best they can for their patients, despite the stresses and problems they have dealing with insurance companies and yes, sometimes arrogant patients.

I'm sorry you have the impression that the entire medical community is terrible and worse, make it known that's how you feel. Even the best doctor in the world doesn't stand a chance if you won't give them one.

EricinNC wrote:

Madalot wrote:

EricinNC wrote:

Madalot wrote:

I can understand how you feel. Believe me, I do. I have run into some of the most horrific doctors on the planet. One had me, a grown woman, crying and screaming at the top of my lungs as I stormed out of his office. I had one doctor that said there were certain things she would NOT discuss with me at all, like my Muscular Dystrophy, which made no sense because that's a major part of my medical situation. But she made it clear that it could not be brought to her at all.

Doctors are people just like you are a person. They have stresses and problems just like you. Some of them are callous jerks that don't care about patients and are in it just for the money. But not ALL doctors are like that. Some care deeply for their patients and do the best they can for their patients, despite the stresses and problems they have dealing with insurance companies and yes, sometimes arrogant patients.

I'm sorry you have the impression that the entire medical community is terrible and worse, make it known that's how you feel. Even the best doctor in the world doesn't stand a chance if you won't give them one.

When I was younger and in better health, I used to joke to people. "Just give me the hot sex and leave the love part out of it." LOL I was being factitious as I know thats not realistic, but was joking.

Now Im like, "just give me my CPAP gear and my medications and leave the doctors, the hospitals and the health insurance and all the assholes who are a part of it out of it."

LOL

Thats basically how I feel

DoriC wrote:Our surgeon looked at Mike's wound Friday (he checks it and cleans it every Tues & Friday which takes 30minutes(only charges Medicare for one visit/week. He had some concerns Friday and is opening his office today just to take a look at it. He lives 45mins away. BTW, his 2 children who are in college are home for the weekend and he told us Friday how much he was looking forward to the weekend. I admit a doctor like him is unusual but not unheard of. I have worked with many physicians and know how dedicated and hard-working most are. They have a very difficult and time-consuming profession.