Doctors are more likely to misdiagnose patients who are jerks

[MichaelB]

Curmudgeons beware. It pays to be polite when seeing your physician. From Vox Doctors are more likely to misdiagnose patients who are jerks - Vox

That's the implication of two new studies published in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety. Separately, the authors demonstrated that clinicians are more likely to make errors of judgment when they're treating frustrating and difficult patients.

 

[audreyh1]

That's probably true for any situation where you need expert advice.

 

[razztazz]

My personal experience is they'll misdiagnose you no matter what. If you're a jerk I guess it just gets worse. How professional of them

 

[Fedup]

I don't trust doctors, I told them to their faces, some killed my mom, misdiagnosed, perhaps. But my doctor is still nice to me, but I don't have any problem yet. So who knows. But I've told my kids not to expect miracles from them either. I'm saying this despite having nephews and nieces who are doctors.


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[pixelville]

That's probably true for any situation where you need expert advice.

Very true.
I didn't believe "being nice" to a someone in customer service would help much (we have all seen this guy who is extra nice to airline gate agent, hotel receptionist, etc). This was until I started volunteering to prepare tax returns. Now I see clients who are very nice and appreciate the service, and I try extra hard to ask them about spend or strategies that might help lower their taxes. And then there are jerks who feel entitled to get the free service, get angry about having to wait until they are helped and are clearly taking advantage of the system. For such people I end up doing the minimum required based on the info provided.

So I am no longer surprised that behavior and hence judgement of docs, lawyers or anyone who deals directly with customers will get impacted based on the behavior of the customer.

 

[MRG]

Very true.
I didn't believe "being nice" to a someone in customer service would help much (we have all seen this guy who is extra nice to airline gate agent, hotel receptionist, etc).

Agreed. Many years ago I learned that lesson the difficult way. Nice guys get upgrades, jerks stay in coach.

 

[unclemick]

I don't trust doctors, I told them to their faces, some killed my mom, misdiagnose get perhaps. But my doctor is still nice to me, but I don't have any problem yet. So who knows. But I've told my kids not to expect miracles from them either. I'm saying this despite having nephews and nieces who are doctors.


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Cops, Doctors and especially Nurses since they are the ones who really know what's going on. Nice pays big dividends.

heh heh heh - also my best Pals/Palette's at the IRS.

 

[Options]

I have a highly professional relationship with my doctors, and I view them as paid consultants. As healthcare costs are such a wild card in retirement, my intention is to minimize such costs through careful attention to diet, exercise, and maintenance of what I refer to as optimal health. I track my physical health as closely as I track my financial health. As such, I partner with my healthcare providers and very much value their input. Consequently, I am in exceptional health, as confirmed by them, and I view this as an ideal vendor relationship.

 

[Car-Guy]

I'm still looking for a doctor who isn't "practicing" anymore. At the rates they charge and the importance of the "service they perform", I want one who's "mastered" the science and isn't practicing it.

 

[Dash man]

I've been impressed with all the doctors at the practice we go to. Eleven years ago they saved my DWs life by recognizing signs of ovarian cancer and pushed to get her the right oncologist GYN in the network. She's still around and cancer free. They have also helped me with some lesser issues missed by physician assistants or nurse practitioners at clinics. Been going to the same practice for 15 years and no plans to change.


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[Viking]

This is excellent news.

 

[audreyh1]

This is excellent news.

LOL!

 

[Walt34]

Not surprising since doctors are human too and don't want to spend any more time with jerks than anyone else.

 

[braumeister]

Replace "doctor" with "auto mechanic" and see if it makes more sense.

The framis has gone bad and is blocking the themotrocle, which is feeding ...

Funny, I've never heard of a framis or a themotrocle ...

I'm telling you that's the problem. I've seen this so many times before. Nobody else in town will do it. I'm up to here in work, but I could fit you in. It'll cost you, though.

 

[W2R]

Yeah, well maybe they are more likely to misdiagnose jerks, but also I think they are more likely to assume that there is nothing really wrong with nice, compliant, smiley patients who just rationally and pleasantly mention their symptoms without being sufficiently assertive about them.

I think that (for me) it helps to stomp one's foot and be a little insistent. In recent years when doctors are so swamped with patients, getting their attention is important and can help those of us with a gentler demeanor, IMO.

 

[ziggy29]

People in the business of customer service are less likely to want to provide a good outcome to people who are jerks to them. Also, water is wet; film at 11!

 

[MichaelB]

That's probably true for any situation where you need expert advice.

Yes, very true. When a mechanic makes a mistake it'll cost you, but when a physician makes one it can kill you, or at least cost a whole lot more to fix.

I think that (for me) it helps to stomp one's foot and be a little insistent. In recent years when doctors are so swamped with patients, getting their attention is important and can help those of us with a gentler demeanor, IMO.

Try hard as I can, I just can't picture you being rude. Insistent, but not difficult. Big difference.

 

[Meadbh]

Doctors are trained to try to treat all patients with respect. However, when they show up with weapons and threaten to rape and stab you, threaten to sue you at the first encounter, demand 100% of your time despite the obvious fact that there are 20 other patients in the ICU, and call you a murderer for bringing up the topic of palliative care, you are likely to avoid them whenever possible, keep security within sight, and keep all conversations short and to the point. These are all true examples of jerks I encountered during my medical career. Is it any surprise that diagnoses are missed in the jerk population?

 

[Fedup]

And you can be nice as pie and they take advantage of you. I'm in the case that's it's up to a point.


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[redduck]

My personal experience is they'll misdiagnose you no matter what. If you're a jerk I guess it just gets worse. How professional of them

Doctors routinely misdiagnose you? Any insight as to why?

 

[Meadbh]

Doctors routinely misdiagnose you? Any insight as to why?

Some patients enjoy pulling the wool over their doctor's eyes. As in "that's for me to know, and you to find out."

 

[ERD50]

This is excellent news.

LOL!

That went over my head until I saw audryh1's response! Well played!


On a more serious note (and I see Meadbh said much the same), even a professional can't distance themselves from this - and it might even be warranted, for their own self-preservation.

Someone earlier said "don't expect miracles" from Doctors? I think this is part of the problem - they are dealing with sometimes very difficult to diagnose and fix problems - why should we expect 'miracles' from humans, highly trained as they might be? But I do see this sometimes in the older people I know - they expect the Doctor to know everything, even when they (the patient) don't talk about all their symptoms. Like the Doctor can just figure everything out on their own.

I have a great deal of respect for Doctors, though they are human and have their own issues at times as well, like all of us.

- ERD50

 

[razztazz]

And you can be nice as pie and they take advantage of you. I'm in the case that's it's up to a point.


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My biggest mistake was being a compliant patient and letting myself be treated for diseases I never had. Believing the doctor knew what he was doing.
It was all "pop" medicine. New disease as seen on TV, we got a pill for that.

None of them had ever heard of a package insert or insisted "you can't believe what they say in the package."

Loss of health. On drugs for life due to unfortunate sequelae of unnecessary drugs for fake diseases I didn't have.

Loss of quality of life. Repeated near loss of life. Loss of ability to work (good thing I was already rich) Will be on prescription for the rest of my life to counter the ill effects. Still need minor surgery incident to the maltreatment but I cannot risk it due to having been made sensitive to almost all antibiotics while I was being treated for a non-disease.

No doctors were sued but some need their throats cut and the gash pizzed into while their mothers are forced to watch. It's a good thing I have good insurance.

As soon as I stopped seeing doctors my health improved by thousands of dollars a year. Almost all of those years of medical costs were due to adverse drug reactions. For needless drugs.

And some doctors are peeved that some customers are jerky? Welcome to everybody else's world. I feel your pain .... NOT. And they feel it's OK to "misdiagnose" them because they are jerks? Just too f... funny. And Unprofessional. And potentially deadly. I guess that's what insurance is for?

 

[razztazz]

Doctors routinely misdiagnose you? Any insight as to why?

You'd have to ask them. Incompetence? Greed? Laziness? They watch too much television? I know I cannot trust them. Every time They have said I was sick with something turned out wrong.

One example: For years statins were effing me up. Every doctor kept telling me I had a brain tumor. Only a brain tumor can cause what they were seeing. I, and insurance, spend money on MRI. Of course no brain tumor. However all my symptoms are well known to be caused by statins. But they kept saying I had to lower my risk of a heart attack maybe 30.. 40 years from now. Azzholes. The story goes on for quite a while.

I kissed them off. The last 12 years the only time I see a doctor is when I'm sick, which is seldom since I stopped letting them tell me what's wrong. And when I have to renew the prescription I need for the destruction they creamed their jeans causing.

I don't like dealing with jerks either. Especially when they cost me and the insurance hundreds of thousands of dollars

 

[ERD50]

... And they feel it's OK to "misdiagnose" them because they are jerks? ...

I doubt there is any intention to it. It's just human nature that someone will not want to go beyond the average time/effort for a person if that person is acting like a jerk.

I don't know what business you were in, but if you had two customers asking questions about the product you sell, and one was respectful and one was a jerk, which would you be more attentive to (consciously or not)?

-ERD50