Quote:
Originally Posted by St George 2013
When you go to a new dr do you ask them if they want you as a patient ?
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That's an interesting question. Medicine is, and has always been, a sellers' market—there are more patients than there are doctors to adequately serve them.
shortage of doctors
This suggests that they certainly don't
need us (as patients) and that a strong motive for
wanting us is increasing their income. More complicated cases mean more doctor visits, more testing, more treatments, etc. A doctor once confessed to me that he wasn't concerned about losing his job because of the money his (kind of/particular) patients brought in to the entity he worked for.
OTOH, as "Doctor Rob" wrote (paraphrased and oversimplified) in his
Letter to Patients With Chronic Disease, some doctors want patients that they can help rather than those they cannot.
This isn't to say that doctors don't care, or are totally mercenary, but the economics &
prestige cannot be denied.
In searching
highest paying professions, careers in healthcare invariably dominate every list (aside from CEOs).
Quote:
The 10 Highest-Paying Jobs In The U.S.
...It’s important for us to note that many of the highest-paying jobs in the U.S. include various positions within the medical community. To avoid this list looking like a half-dozen or more reasons you should’ve saved up and gone to med school, we’ve omitted some of the redundant medical careers; for example, we’re grouping all the medical doctors together for the sake of simplicity. And if you really want to know just how profitable a career in medicine can be, take a look at the unabridged top 25 list, which we’ve included at the end of our list. Here are the top 10 highest-paying jobs in the U.S. as published in 2012 by the U.S. Department of Labor.
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I cannot imagine a doctor responding to the question,
"Do you want me as a patient?" with, "Yes, but only for the money," but sadly, that may be the reality of the situation for some.
I've always advocated an interview as part of the vetting process for selecting a new doctor—I do it myself—and many articles are available on that very subject.
interviewing a new doctor
I think the question is a good one, but may not even be necessary depending on how other answers/things go in the interview(?)
Doc