LEARN INSURANCE

The vast majority of patients are usually completely satisfied with their medical care and are grateful to their doctor. However, in some cases, problems can occur, and you need to know what steps you can take if you are unhappy or dissatisfied with the outcome of your treatment.

In the first instance, you should try to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. Talk to the doctor or the hospital administration to try and settle matters at the earliest, especially with regard to minor complaints ( such as rude staff, telephone calls not being returned or unpalatable hospital food). Most complaints originate due to seemingly trivial problems.

If however, if you have a serious complaint about your medical care, and if you are convinced that your doctor has been negligent, you can take appropriate action. However, do remember that just because the outcome has not been satisfactory ( for example, a patient dies during surgery) , it does not necessarily mean that the doctor has been negligent or irresponsible! There are many reasons why patients do not do as well as expected; after all, medicine is an inexact science which deals with many biological variables that are beyond anyone's control. Consequently, in spite of the best care, a patient may die or his condition may become worse.

There are many avenues open to you to get redressal, and you may choose any or all of them. For instance, you can make a complaint to the local professional medical body, usually the state medical council. The appropriate medical council can punish the doctor: for example, by removing his name from the medical register, if he has been found guilty of serious professional misconduct, either permanently, or for a specified period, so that he can no longer practice medicine.

Before taking legal action, you should carefully consider all the implications and repercussions. The process can be a very long and expensive one. You must also ascertain precisely what you want to achieve by initiating litigation. Do you merely want an apology from the doctor? Are you angry with the doctor because you feel he was careless and you want to seek revenge? Do you want to expose the doctor's incompetence to the public to protect other patients? Do you want monetary compensation? While all or any of these objectives may provide sufficient reason to go to court, do remember that medical malpractice lawsuits are powerful double-edged weapons which should be used only as a last resort. Not only can such lawsuits damage a good doctor's reputation, they can also create a lot of tension between patients and doctors in general. Let me point out, in this context, that unnecessary and excessive medical litigation has led to the regrettable situation in which American medicine finds itself today, in which both doctors and patients have become losers.

Patientology is the study of patients - and this is a core skill which all doctors need to learn, even though there is no textbook or syllabus for this !

One way all doctors can become better patientologists is by teaching their patients how to become better patients ! Good patients make for good doctors - and it's possible to provide patients with a toolbox of skills which they can learn to help themselves.

These tools include teaching patients :

how to keep good medical records
how to talk to doctors
how to ask questions
how to do their homework
how to take care of themselves when they are in hospital

I know lots of doctors, but most of them are not very good at handling money. The fact that they got into medical college means they are bright and must have been in the top of their class, but most of them have very little business sense. Why is this so ?

Even though every clinic is a small business, most doctors have no exposure or training in business management . While they are very hard working and intelligent, they are often not good at managing other people or building teams.

Sadly, most of them are not willing to learn . One of the occupational hazards of being a doctor is that because they did so well academically, many of them they think they know it all , and cannot be taught anything. How sadly mistaken they are ! If you do not know what you do not know, how will you ever learn new stuff ?

Most doctors do not have role models they can emulate. Doctors are often intensely political and competitive. They are secretive and not willing to share what they have learnt with their colleagues - which means that most doctors have to make their own mistakes in order to get ahead.

Most doctors are in solo practise, which means they are stuck thinking small most of their lives. In their first decade of practise, they are so busy trying to attract patients, they they often lose sight of the big picture. By the time they become more mature, they are already ready to retire !

Sadly, giving cuts has become the norm today and most doctors are so used to taking shortcuts in order to build their practise, that they lose sight of basic customer service principles. This means that rather than spend time and energy keeping their patients happy, they waste a lot of it networking with colleagues who refer patients to them . Because these colleagues think the same way they do, there is very little attention paid to growing the business ethically.

Some senior doctors take a perverse pride in the fact that they are not interested in earning money ! They consider medicine to be a service profession and feel that earning money is below their dignity . They will often look down ( or pretend to do so ) upon doctors who are richer than they are.

Most doctors do not use technology cleverly. While they are often aware of the latest gadget and gizmo in their own specialty, they are often not smart enough to use technology for managing their clinic , growing their practise or marketing themselves.

Many are woefully financially naive. When they first start practise, they are so used to working for free that they do not think about paying themselves at all ! When they start their clinic, they treat the clinic's income as their personal income. However, this is actually the income of their business - they should only be paying themselves a salary as a CEO. The clinic should be profitable enough to pay them a salary and should be able to run without their presence ! Most doctors are so busy working in their practise , that they fail to work on their practise !

Doctors do not learn to leverage their strengths; and because they are so busy competing with each other , they do not learn to cooperate and grow the pie for their profession. They fritter away the goodwill they have earned from their patients on personal gratification. Sadly, the leaders of the profession are intensely political , and because they are so focussed on looking only after their personal selfish interests, they do little for the profession as a whole. By the time they are senior and are capable of looking at the big picture, they are thinking about retiring !

Most doctors are good at what they do, which is taking care of their patients . While this is good for their personal wellbeing, it's not good for the profession, which lacks leaders who can provide wise counsel for their colleagues and peers.