“I Need To Find a Doctor!”
We hear this all time from people. They call our offices asking for referrals and advice. We hear it in our personal lives all the time. People have health problems and there is a real challenge to find the right doctor for their specific ailment or need.
But why is this? There are doctors on every street, around every hospital, in every office building. Especially in urban areas where there are literally thousands of doctors of virtually every specialty and experience level. There are so many doctors and specialties most people don’t know who they should go to.
Many people just randomly pick their specialist of primary care doctor. In contrast it may be easier to find the person in rural areas where there are less choices.
Think about it. If you are an average person with average knowledge of medicine, and you have symptoms, who do you go to? How do you know?
So, many people just randomly pick a doctor. But, before they do, the problem gets worse, to the point where they feel like they have to choose someone. Once the situation gets that bad, who knows how bad it has really gotten. We all know that catching disease early is many times critical to successful treatment.
We would contend that there is not enough information available and people don’t know who to trust or who would be the right person to go to, from the information they do have. Consider the internet where all the information in the world is available. You can search any ailment and read all about it. But, usually the information is produced somewhere else, by someone who is far away and not available at all.
Then there is the problem of expecting the patient to be able to figure it out. My mechanic spent an entire year in structured classes offered by the manufacturer learning how to fix my car. I don’t know how to fix it. He spent an entire year studying and refining his skills and knowledge. A doctor spends countless years, hours and training to understand one small area of the body. The patients aren’t going to figure that out. There lies the disconnect.
The bigger problem is that most people refuse to randomly pick a doctor or provider, and turn their health over to someone they have never met and don’t know. They only have so much time to try to figure it out until the point where they are so frustrated they give up. It is confusing. It’s difficult. So, they don’t go to anyone. In terms of the effective and efficient delivery of healthcare, this could be the worst choice of all.
Educating people about their individual situations is imperative in order to get more people to go to the doctor, when they know they should. And, this information needs to come from local providers so people can actually call them and go to them.
