1st death from measles in US since 2015

[outside shooter]

These days when I go to my doctor's practice I generally ask to see the NP. The doctor will talk to me for 30 seconds, with his hand on the doorknob, but the NP will actually talk to you for a while, answer questions, and better explain any results. It's been that way for several doctors and several NPs in the past few years.

 

[Eppy99]

These days when I go to my doctor's practice I generally ask to see the NP. The doctor will talk to me for 30 seconds, with his hand on the doorknob, but the NP will actually talk to you for a while, answer questions, and better explain any results. It's been that way for several doctors and several NPs in the past few years.

They certainly have a lot more time to spend with patients. Generally they have a much smaller patient load. As for their knowledge they still rely heavily on the doctors for challenging patients or questions.

 

[WhyisIUBBcursed]

These days when I go to my doctor's practice I generally ask to see the NP. The doctor will talk to me for 30 seconds, with his hand on the doorknob, but the NP will actually talk to you for a while, answer questions, and better explain any results. It's been that way for several doctors and several NPs in the past few years.

We have to get to the golf course…. We have priorities

 

[Eppy99]

We have to get to the golf course…. We have priorities

My grandfather before he passed away was an ophthalmologist. Times were way different back then. Of course you can only see as many patients as chairs you have for your rooms. I had another cousin who was an oral surgeon and was extremely busy with multiple chairs to handle his business. The oral surgeon cousin once asked my grandfather, “Victor, why do only have one chair”. To which he answered, why would I want more than one chair? It will cut down on my bridge playing time. Back then doctors, lawyers or anyone with money would belong to places like the Columbia Club in downtown Indy and spend the afternoon playing cards. Seems like a better way to live than the current rat race.

 

[Univee2]

It’s a shame we can’t export dumb Americans.

We wouldn’t have any politicians then.

 

[UncleMark]

Several different sub-topics in this thread...

Re: patients "doing their own research," it's obviously going to vary. My wife is a heavy consumer of medical services. She's also very smart, well read, and had some nursing training in her youth. When she sees a practitioner, she's educated herself as much as possible ahead of time, and it comes from reputable sources, not Facebook. They love her. They can have an intelligent discussion and know she understands what's going on. She has had a couple major procedures done by Kyle Hornsby, and he even asked her to become a regular ongoing patient, something his staff said was extremely rare.

Me, I don't have nearly the encounters she does, but I too am reasonably bright and well read and come from a medical family so I can usually talk intelligently with them. One instance that stands out was after I had my prostate biopsied, I went in to go over what they'd found. She started into this long explanation before I interrupted and asked "What's my Gleason score?" which was what she was trying to explain. "You've done your homework, haven't you?" she responded. Our conversations have been on a less elementary level ever since.

Re: charges for NP visits being the same as for MDs, I suspect that's more a function of the practice charging $X for a particular service, no matter who does it. Kind of like the auto shop charging you the same for a brake job whether or not the apprentice or the journeyman does it.

Re: quality of care between NPs or MDs, I can't complain. I had an episode about 18 months ago where I was losing my breath and at times couldn't breath. (The one and only time I was truly frightened by something health related.) An NP at my primary's practice was able to see me, and she diagnosed "possible" pneumonia and prescribed a couple drugs that cured me in an hour or two. Another time about six months ago I became violently ill, vomiting and shitting like mad. Couldn't even keep down water. Went to urgent care and an NP fixed me up with a couple scripts that stopped the retching in its tracks.

 

[hookyIU1990]

As far as the "do your own research " issues, you can thank pharma for a fair amount of that thanks to advertising.

Personally, I'm happy to do my own research when the commercial says " Ask your doctor about Flumuxotosin." Then in the disclaimer says "Don't take Flumuxotosin if you're allergic to Flumuxotosin"