Why Is It So Hard To Communicate With Doctors?
Answer by David Chan, MD from UCLA, Stanford oncology fellowship, on Quora:
People have an unrealistic expectation that their doctors are blocking huge parts of their days to field questions and review test results on the phone. I can almost always get a relatively fast call back from my attorney and accountant. I also get a bill for that call. Doctors and doctor’s offices don’t get paid for phone time, or email time, or text time.
There is no way for any physician’s office to efficiently manage phone calls and/or emails from patients. Most physicians already spend an extra 90 minutes a day completing the electronic medical records and that is after seeing their normal work day scheduled patients and the urgent/emergent add ons.
American doctors owe on average $200,000-300,000 in student loan debt. The job doesn’t scale so doctors work long hard hours.
Aside from any personal financial responsibilities to home and family, doctors have to pay their office rent, staff salaries, health benefits, workers compensation insurance, malpractice insurance, licensing fees, hospital medical staff fees and business taxes.
Staffing in offices is tight. There are frequent staff absentees. There is no way to efficiently field calls except for true emergencies.
The only practices that give rapid phone response to patients are concierge practices. Patients pay $2,500–$5,000 per year for access to the office and physician.
My patients know that they will always get a call back from me but it will be at the end of my day. They are asked to make an appointment if the question is not urgent. I understand that my patients have loved ones from out of state and I’ll frequently return the calls when my work day ends, typically 7–8 PM. But I won’t take a patient call during my patient care time unless I’m told that it’s a true emergency.
Source: Forbes
