I Looked At Another Member's Post Again, Sorry.

By TLS

So…yep, I did it again. I looked at another post and dug into it. This one? Supposedly posted by an MD. The post shows a picture of Dana White shirtless, he is representing well, good job Dana. The poster’s quote (it’s unclear whether it’s the MD or Dana) says they will never talk to their doctor about general health again because all they know how to do is prescribe pills. The post says a few other things but this point is the focus here.

Do Primary Care Providers prescribe lots of pills? Yes they do. Is that what they want to do? Probably not. What I can say is that after working in healthcare in direct patient care for a decade, most general health problems are self-induced. AND, I have seen crystal clear that most people would rather take a pill than make a substantial permanent lifestyle change to improve their health. I have also seen crystal clear that many will choose to simply ignore a life-threatening problem rather than make that change.

Most people are also not very receptive to hearing they are overweight. Most people are not receptive to hearing they drink too much. Most people are not receptive to hearing they don’t exercise enough (or at all), or their diet is terrible, or their lifestyle is killing them. Most people are not receptive to hearing anything they do not want to hear. But, they usually are receptive to a pill.

So, providers test the waters, they make minor suggestions which would improve the patient’s health. Then they see this is not received well or at all. Then the patient simply tells them what medication they should be prescribed. Often from their own ‘research’ such as a commercial seen on TV which not so subtly suggests the pill will fix all their problems.

If the provider is experienced, they will probably just prescribe the medication. If the provider is not, they may try to advocate for something else or a different solution entirely. The result? The patient marks the provider down on their patient satisfaction scores. The provider then either doesn’t get paid, doesn’t get paid as much, or is reprimanded in some fashion.

What does this lead to? A system driven by satisfaction scores and not health outcomes. This in turn leads to providers doing pretty much whatever the hell the patient wants as long as it’s remotely justifiable to insurance. Then patients and others blame doctors for their own self-induced self-sabotaged poor health. And some others go so far as to post on social media that doctors don’t know anything. Maybe that’s a pill too tough to swallow.

If you value honesty over comfort, if you want truth over easy fixes, then let’s start holding ourselves accountable. Share this with someone who blames doctors for their health. Maybe it is time they looked in the mirror instead.