What does your family doctor really know? We really could save tons
of
money by seeing a good nurse for our primary care instead of the
friendly and expensive general practice doctor. (Practice indeed).
I have a friend who became a very successful family doctor in a large
Ohio City who told me that most of what he learned in medical school
he
has long ago forgotten because he does not use it. He said that all
he
really needs is an office in an accessable neighborhood, (close to
the
local hospitals helps), a thermometer, a blood pressure machine, a
stethascope, a Rollidex with the names of the local specialists, a
great office staff that will protect you from inquisitive patients
looking for free medical advice ("I call them my Palace Guards." ),
and most of all, "You must have a nurse with lots of hospital
experience. She has seen it all and generally knows more about
medications than most doctors. What we know about drugs we learn from
the pharmacutical "drummers."
My friend is right.If you stop to think about it. The nurse does
most
of the dirty work before the medicine man even sees you in the cold
room where he guesses what is wrong. The nurse has weighed you, taken
your blood pressure, checked your pulse, taken your temperature if
you
complain of a fever, and lastly, she asks why you are visiting her
boss
so she can give him a heads up to prepare him for his friendly and
expensive chat with you.
Who took your blood and who determines the results of the blood work?
Not Dr. Doomer.
And if you end up in a hospital you generally are put under the care
of
a specialist who Doomer sent you to in the first place. But, be sure
Doomer sees you every day regardless that he does nothing for you put
check your hospital charts and holds your hand while he tells you,
"I'll see you tomorrow."
My friend told me he makes his "nut" (expenses) from his morning
hospital visits.
UGH !
Since the days of Florence Nightingale, there has been a debate over
which medical tasks a nurse should perform. Trained nurse
practitioners
offer primary care that appears to be just as good or better than
what
doctors can provide, say researchers.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
Many Patients Prefer Nurses To Doctors
Daily Policy Digest
Health Issues / Medical Personnel Findings:
Nurses spent more time with patients.
Nurses conducted more tests.
Patients did no better or worse when they saw a nurse instead of a
doctor.
However, patients treated by nurses were more satisfied with their
care.
Nurses cannot (legally) completely replace doctors; but for patients
wi****ng same-day medical care nurse practitioners provide a very good
standard of care, according to study.
The American Medical Association opposes independent practice by
nurse
practitioners, although it recommends that doctors work in close
collaboration with them. The AMA's president-elect, Yank D. Coble
Jr.,
said a British study fails to account for the fact that most
primary-care patients aren't very sick. Coble says nurses simply
don't
have the rigorous scientific background needed for subtle or complex
illnesses (Nonsense). Neither does the GP. He sends his patients to
doctors who specialize.
Nurse practitioner advocates point out that not every physician is
trained in every disease. General practitioners routinely refer
patients to physicians with specialized knowledge; nurse
practitioners
could easily do likewise.
Source: Daniel DeNoon, "Many Patients Prefer Nurses to Doctors,"
WebMD,
April 4, 2002; Sue Horrocks, Elizabeth Anderson, and Chris Salisbury,
"Systematic Review of Whether Nurse Practitioners Working in Primary
Care Can Provide Equivalent Care to Doctors," British Medical
Journal,
April 6, 2002.
12770 Coit Rd., Suite 800 - Dallas, TX 75251-1339 - 972/386-6272 -
Fax
972/386-0924
601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 900 South Building - Wa****ngton, DC
20004 - 202/220-3082 - Fax 202/220-3096
Copyright 2002 National Center for Policy Analysis - All rights
reserved.
For text Medical Personnel
Objective: To determine whether nurse practitioners can provide care
at
first point of contact equivalent to doctors in a primary care
setting.
What this study adds
Patients are more satisfied with care from a nurse practitioner than
from a doctor, with no difference in health outcomes
Nurse practitioners provide longer consultations and carry out more
investigations than doctors
Most recent research has related to patients requesting same day
appointments for minor illness, which is only a limited part of a
doctor's role
Conclusion: Increasing availability of nurse practitioners in primary
care is likely to lead to high levels of patient satisfaction and
high
quality care.
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/324/7341/819
Do we really need these expensive prima donna GPs in the United
States?
Are "General Practitioners" or "GPs" overated, overpaid and
overwhelmed
with too many patients? Can well trained nurses perform the same
duties
as the GPs and at a much lower cost? After all, the GP really does
nothing more than [attempt] to diagnose a patient's problem and then
send him/her on to someone else to fix the problem. The GP is simply
just the usher or maitre d' for the patient. Until the patient has
been
blood tested or x-rayed by someone other than the GP, it is strictly
guess work for the family doctor who does little that a well
qualified
nurse cannot do for the same patient.
The office nurse has already taken the temperature and blood pressure
of the patient before the doctor even enters the picture. And a good
nurse with lots of hospital experience may be better qualified than
the
doctor to advise the patient. Also, the nurse generally knows much
more
about the medications and their interactions with other drugs than
the
doctor who relies on what he was told by the pharmacy company pimp.
SEE:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.health/msg/5bc4a7497edce539
Next time you go to your GP, tape the visit. Then, when you get home
review what took place. You will no doubt discover that your neighbor
could have done the same thing if he had a prescription manual.
All visits should be taped for future proof in the event that a
patient
decided later to sue his medicine man. A tape protects both patient
and
family doctor.
I tape all visits to my GP Travel Agent
Recently my last GP medicine man decided to abandon the trade and
move
to another state to go into succesful business with a brother. When I
asked him if he would recommend another doctor for me, he said
(laughing but serious), "Do you know who Dr. Weil is" ? When I said
yes, he replied, " I would go to Dr. Weil if I were you."
Also : SEE :
Prescribing Under the Influence
By E. Haavi Morreim
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/morreim/prescribing....
Gifts to doctors from drug company pimps have implications for
patient
interests.
Public opinion about doctors' pay
CE Ross and J Lauritsen
Public opinion about doctors' incomes was examined in a national
random
sample of 843 respondents; 70.1 per cent of those questioned felt
physicians are overpaid. There was a high degree of agreement among
various groups that physicians are overpaid, but older people and
Whites were more likely to think so than younger people and other
ethnic groups. People who believe that the United States is
characterized by unequal educational op****tunity, unfair income
distribution, and limited resources were also more likely to think
physicians are overpaid.
":Greed is good."
---Gordon Gekko, Wall Street
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