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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxi!houxm!ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert
From: seifert@ihuxl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Choosing doctors
Message-ID: <650@ihuxl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Oct-83 10:06:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxl.650
Posted: Mon Oct 10 10:06:51 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Oct-83 00:09:37 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 32

Shop for a doctor the same way I shop for a stereo dealer?
Hardly.  Do you audition speakers bleeding and half-unconscious?
Do you rate the merits of the latest cartridge hobbling around
on one leg because the other is broken? I don't.

When one is in need of a doctor, one often isn't in the position
of picking and choosing carefully. More like find the nearest medical
center, pray that he/she is competent, and make sure you have
your insurance card. You *do* carry it with you at all times, don't
you? Even when jogging/swimming/etc?

Sure doctors are only human. I don't expect them to be perfect.
I don't expect them to be experts in all areas of medicine.
They have a difficult job to do, and I don't begrudge them being
paid more than average for it (although not to the extremes that
some doctors apparently carry it to). HOWEVER, I do expect them
to at *least* be competent!  Unfortunately I have no assurance of
this. In fact, the evidence I've seen says that I can expect
*in*competence. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!

If my auto mechanic is incompetent, I can fix my own car.
If the local contractors are incompetent, I could build my
own house. If I need an appendectomy, there's no way I can
get around the need for a surgeon. And I'm not going to be
in any position to 'shop' for one. Whoever I happen to get
had *better* know what he/she is doing.

				Dave Seifert
				ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert
-- 
				Dave Seifert
				ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert