Prostate Lab www.prostatelab.com
"Focused on the Prostate since 1996"
Urologist Orientation
Unsolicited Advice
1- Educate yourself and encourage your patients to do likewise. Presently, most of the information on the internet is directed toward the patient. As patients continue to become more sophisticated, the body of literature proliferating on the net will approach that found in medical texts. Your experience as a practicing physician will be invaluable to the patient in helping him transform his newfound facts into knowledge he can use. This educational process takes time, time that you may not have. Your office support staff, working under your direction, may prove invaluable to you in this regard.
2-Keeping the interests of your patients paramount can be difficult when you are compensated for doing the procedures associated with your specialty. You have spent many years in school, residency, and practice improving the intellectual and physical skills necessary to practice your profession. It is natural that you wish to help people by doing what you do best. Unfortunately, what you do best is not necessarily what is best for the patient. It may be necessary to refer a patient to another specialist with different skills. If you can't afford to lose these patients, then learn the skills you need in order to retain them.
3- If a patient wants more of your time or expertise that his insurance is willing to pay, tell him this is the case. He has as much right to your medical care as he has the responsiblity to see that you are fairly compensated for providing it. You have the right to ask for fair payment. You have the right to make charatible gifts of your services. If you are in a capitated arrangement with your patients, causing you to lose money with every "patient encounter," consider leaving such arrangements. It is more honorable to get paid for practicing your profession than to get paid for not practicing it.
4- The corporatization of medicine has forced physicians to think like businessmen. Unfortunately, it has caused many of us to act as businessmen. Monetary profit must never become our primary goal, but must remain secondary to our taking the very best care of our patients. We must cultivate the fiduciary relationship we have with our patients, one based on honor. If there is an insurance company between you and your patient, let it be clear to everyone involved what the relationship is. We will not be gagged.
Medical Director and Chief Prostate Pathologist
Prostate Lab
Nashville, TN
Academic Centers of Prostate Excellence
JOURNALS OF PROSTATIC INTEREST