OT: in favour of gradualism

Would that we could snap our fingers and get a doctor like that.

care

Cultivate your medical friends. They know who is good - though it would be unethical of them to say so explicitly. The English formulation was "You'll get on with him (or her)". The Australian formulation was a lot more direc t - but we had known that particular medical friend for a very long time.

Yeah and as soon as they step out of the office they order a club sandwich with double bacon and extra mayo, light a cigarette with a filter that is m ore deadly than the tobacco, then get on at least four prescription drugs t hat are destroying their liver and kidneys.

My Grandfather never drank, he got a new doctor and he asked "How long did he drink ?". the drugs they gave him destroyed his liver.

You cannot rehab this society, the only thing to do is to let the dumb die off and work with what is left.

On Saturday, February 4, 2017 at 12:00:08 AM UTC+11, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrot e:

h with double bacon and extra mayo, light a cigarette with a filter that is more deadly than the tobacco, then get on at least four prescription drugs that are destroying their liver and kidneys.

My youngest brother doesn't act like that, nor any of my medically qualifie d cousins. On the other hand, you aren't the kind of patient I'd wish on th em.

d he drink ?". The drugs they gave him destroyed his liver.

There are drugs that do that - to some people. I'm on one of them. They che cked my liver function every month for the first six months I was taking it , and annually thereafter.

e off and work with what is left.

Pessimistic. There's a drug for that.

No, all of our doctors were quite happy to recommend others. We got a recommendation for a pediatrician who was decidedly "old school" from my wife's Ob-Gyn. She asked who he took HIS kids to! We were concerned when our earlier pediatrician said "Oh, they all get that" when we had a kid who had persistent ear infections. Like the car dealer who says "Oh, they all make that noise." The Dr. recommended by her doctor jumped right on it, and figured out **I** was a staph carrier and was infecting the whole family.

So, while doctors might be careful not to bad-mouth other doctors by name, they will happily tell you who they think are good.

Jon

Around here they usually don't. When our dentist closed his practice for health and age reasons nobody there would give us a clear recommendation. We had to do the long slog through reviews and asking people, like usual.

I think there is a big difference. Doctors will recommend doctors in other specialties but usually not in their own. My family doctor recommended many others to me (cardiologist, orthopedist, rheumatologist, etc.) but when he changed his practice to concierge medicine, he didn't give recommendations to all of his patients to go to someone else. This may have been seen as a conflict of interest.

Ok, but when they clearly shut down their office in order to retire, what's the point? I am now at a stage myself where I gradually begin to slow down my consulting so I have more time for volunteering, cycling, brewing and so on. I helped some clients find suitable other engineers, either as consultants or employees (sometimes conducting interviews).

Unless they sell their practice to another doctor, suggesting that they go to some _one_ else suggests a kick-back. My doctor going concierge is essentially the same thing. Very few of his patients will follow. We would have if we could (insurance).

Medical practice is quite different than engineering consulting.

They did not sell but closed down. These guys would never do the kick-back thing, we know the family quite well.

It shouldn't be. Let's see what the next health law will bring. I sure hope they follow through with health savings (we already have that) and, therefore, more transparency WRT to billing. Tort law reform would be nice now that the Dems are out but I still doubt it's going to happen.

What they would do and what they did are irrelevant. What's relevant is what others (including lawyers) will conjure up.

Of course it should be. I have no interest in paying 100% of my salary in malpractice insurance.

You'd have to prove kick-back to make a case out of it. To me this is not irrelevant anyhow, I prefer to deal with professionals who have good ethics.

... My doctor going

Exactamente. In engineering it's the same, except it's worse. I cannot even obtain PL insurance because of exposure to med-tech and aerospace. Got turned down by just about any underwriter despite never having had any claims. If I was a leaky oil tanker I guess they'd gladly insure me.

OK, may well be!

Ahh, but sending out a recommendation to 3000 patients to go see Dr. X could really cause some problems. So, I can easily see why they would not want to do that.

Jon

How tall are you? 3'4"?

...and recommening someone less than the best *is* a conflict.