Bedside Manners

Answer to Why do doctors often have poor bedside manners, and what as a patient could I do to make their say better?

Because physicians are humans.

You will find the arrogant, rude, inconsiderate, and uncompassionate among us just as in society at large.

However, you will also find the sensitive, caring, loving, and compassionate among us, too. Just like society at large.

I'm not sure about others, but we learned about good bedside manners in med school. My teachers were professors in the Psychiatry Department at the then North Chicago VA. The training was excellent, and I internalized a lot of it. Among other components, we learned which words and phrases not to say, what body language puts patients at ease, and even to change the rate of speech under different conditions. Good stuff.

As for your second question, what can YOU do? Plenty, starting with just letting your doc know how you feel. Try not to make it confrontational. Just simple and honest. This may change how they interact with you, but I doubt you'll make much of a change in their character.

If that doesn't work, write a letter and mail it to the clinic manager/hospital CEO. Snail mail makes a bigger impact than email. That should make some difference. Especially if many others complain.

Then there's always Yelp, or Google Reviews, and so on. Permit me to give you a personal anecdote. I had to change family docs at the end of last year because my insurance changed. My first visit with my new one was February 2nd of this year. The encounter was humiliating.

Last Fall I fell into a manic episode that lasted 6 weeks. During that time I apparently drank. Which is not what I normally do. At one point I fell and kissed the concrete. I was taken by ambulance to an ER where, of course they obtained a blood alcohol level which was just above the legal intoxication level.

Anyway, the new doc walks into the room, introduces himself, then says, “so you are an alcoholic.” Then proceeds to grill me about drinking and abusing drugs, which I have never done. No physical exam, no history taking, nada. On the way out, he says, “see you in 6 months.”

I posted a negative review on Yelp. Someone in the hospital system must have read it and talked to him because at my follow-up visit August 2nd (just last Friday), he was as nice and attentive as can be!

If none of this helps, change docs. It's your right. Good luck.

http://bit.ly/2ML3mXI