Dammit, I am not a patient, I am a CUSTOMER!

[poltr1]

<rant>
Another thing I don't like about the American health care industry, besides them using the Social Security number for identifcation purposes, is the impersonal service I get from health-care providers.

I'm on meds. I'm a regular at the local pharmacy. But there are still clerks there who don't know or use my name. They ask me, "Have you ever filled here before?" and other inane questions. Sometimes I wonder if they ask questions to annoy me. Geez; might as well replace them with robots or something since they do the same thing over and over again.

A couple of providers insist on calling me "James". To me, "James" is a 10-year old kid in a suit that's too small. It's like calling me a derogatory name. When I ask them if there's a place on their form for nicknames, they either say there isn't one, or something about the insurance company requiring my legal name. But the insurance company is not their customer -- I am.

The health care providers are so focused on following the rules and regs that they've lost sight of the reason they're in that business in the first place: their patients, or as we should be considered, their customers.
</rant>

Comments

[madfilkentist]

The problem is that you aren't the customer. If you're like me, you pay perhaps a token $10 or $20 when you go to the doctor. For most patients, the insurance company is the customer. It's that way because there are serious incentives, and often requirements, that employers buy insurance or that they buy it for themselves.

And that is why the health care system is so screwed up -- because the patient isn't the customer.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I'm not a libertarian, but there is truth in what you say. Much of the reason that health care is so expensive today is that most people don't ever see how expensive it is; they just scream for better care, and for a long time employers just ponied up for whatever they wanted. The country developed the mindset that all the care they could possibly use was free. Similarly, the providers are free to charge whatever they feel like for their services, since the person demanding the services doesn't pay the bill. As these trends combine with great scientific advances in what treatment is possible, the whole thing melts down. Health care is up to 20% of GDP, but to get good coverage for everyone with the current private but not not cost restrained system would cost a good bit more.

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

Actually, I don't have problem with "James". It sounds like a grown-up name to me. And "Jim" is for close personal friends. One of the local politicians running for mayor was calling himself "Jimmy Griffith", to me, that sounds like I should vote for a 10-year old kid. And I really don't want them calling me "David" at the pharmacy, etc. I am "Mr. Salley" to them.
-- Dagonell

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I totally emphasize about the first name thing. "Philip" is part of what I sign my checks and fill out legal documents with. My *name* is Phil.

[mrs-keradon.livejournal.com]

That is the whole reason I changed doctors. When I get handed a form to fill out every time I go for a visit or take my kids, have to wait in cold waiting rooms then wait again in a colder examination room, then get handed a bill to pay on my way out, it is an assembly line not a clinic. I stopped feeling like a human with a problem and was instead a problem attached to a human. I changed doctors and am much happier. Think about changing to different pharmacy if it is an option.