Dear Aarcyn,

I have copied a few excerpts from Starznight's first post on the thread and have colored in RED, the parts that were most offensive to me and what I regard as total disrespect and totally uncalled for and most unprofessional.

Let's pretend for just a moment that the patient was someone other than Starznight and really was a "drug seeker". A true professional should not speak to the patient nor the parents of the patient in the manner in which this physician spoke. There are different ways of handling drug seeking patients and I doubt that this physician's technique would be advantageous to anyone.

This is about the same as walking into a room and assuming that the teenager that resides in the household broke the vase laying in pieces on the floor. The parent punishes the kid for the incident, and then goes on to lecture on the need to be more careful and demands the kid get an after school job to earn the money to pay for the broken vase. The sad part of this story is the kid did NOT break the vase. The cat jumped up and knocked the vase off the table.

This doctor was just WRONG in the way they treated Starznight. I was NOT referring to the exam, the grabbing of the arm, or the triage method utilized by this facility. I was referring to the assumption that the patient was an addict and the verbalizations made by the physician.

There is such a thing as "The Patient's Bill of Rights", and I believe it was clearly violated by this physician. One of the FIRST items mentioned in this bill of rights is the patient's right to be treated respectfully.

I agree that doctors are put in a precarious position since there ARE people that are seeking drugs and that physicians are at risk of losing their license to practice if they do not pay attention to this fact. But, for me, I can find NO excuse for the behavior exhibited by this physician.

I do not know if it is nationwide, but in MY locale, one must present proper identification at a pharmacy before obtaining drugs in certain classes. And going from pharmacy to pharmacy is of NO aid to the drug seeker as there is a database connecting ALL pharmacies with each other to halt that particular abuse.

I agree that "expectations" are different from person to person and may not be met while the facility or medical professional did everything properly and within guidelines. I just don't see that to be the case here. I do not find any excuse for the physician to have spoken to Starznight or her parents in the manner in which he/she did.

I agree that one must learn to advocate for themselves whenever they can and have someone act as their advocate if necessary. While Starznight was having difficulty being her own advocate due to her condition at the time, she did have family members trying to advocate for her to no avail. The physician was just NOT listening.

I am just very glad that this particular physician is not representative of most. Many doctors still know how to listen and to treat patients with respect.

This quote from your post. I must agree that the word "respect" has different connotations and can be vague at times, but I think it is a generally understood term as used in the patients bill of rights. I do NOT think Starznight was treated with respect when the physician stated as a fact, something only assumed and not known to be true.

*administrative edit"

Since you mentioned that your brother is a neuro, maybe you are sensitive to any challenges made toward a physician. This was NOT a doctor bashing post. Starznight spoke highly of another doctor encounter at the same facility. It was just this ONE particular doctor that was in my opinion worth being reported for his demeanor.

I sincerely apologize if I misunderstood your post. I may have mistaken your questions as an attempt to put all responsibility onto the patient, not the facility providing the care. I am not sure that patients have control to see the neuro on call when in an ER. That is usually determined by the ER staff physicians, at least in my area. It is against hospital policy to allow patients to eat or drink anything that was not provided to them by the hospital (especially in the ER) so having someone go to a vending machine would NOT be allowed in my hospital.