WHEELING, W.Va., June 23 -- Gauged by the popularity of physician-rating Internet sites such as Healthgrades.com, patients love to trash their physicians for cold personalities -- or just cold hands.
But it's a two-way street. Patients also can do things to make the doctor's job needlessly difficult, sometimes to the patients' own detriment, and definitely to the doctor's annoyance.
A frequently cited 1999 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that doctors rated up to 15% of patient visits "difficult."
Many doctors run into patients with bad habits, which makes diagnosing and treating them seem maddening.
The following is a collection of patients' top doctor-irking habits, as suggested by studies and conversations with practicing physicians.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PracticeManagement/PracticeManagement/14822This is a good read Ooh, I'd better be careful --- my doctor's in Wheeling, WV, and he may have read the article. Heck, he may be the source of the complaints!I have brought my husband into the exam room but only when I was so ill I needed help getting in there and because I was too sick to listen. I also went with my brother when he got his cancer diagnosis as a second pair of ears. Sometimes it's necessary. For the regular exams though I would agree it's not necessary.