One thing I really love to do is to be a patient and not say one word to anyone that I'm a physician. I want to see/feel/hear how regular patients are treated, and I don't want to be subjected to the hallway consults of dermatological issues that other patients in the office are having--and this has happened to me--once I was getting a physical and my doc asked me about a patients' rash in another room--I told him to have the patient call my office :-)
I went for a flu shot at a local walk in clinic. I perused their glossy brochures by the front desk. They have 3 MD's --older white men, medical school grads of the 70's--and 9 staff "ARNP" with so many letters after their names I was wondering if they wanted to print an alphabet soup. CSH, ARNP, MSM, WTF?? What is all of this crap?
Now, I do not for a minute minimize nor belittle what RNP's do. However, to have a walk-in medical clinic staffed with them nearly 3 to 1, something is wrong. I thought all RNP's had to be supervised and present each patient's case to a licensed physician. I don't know what the regs are currently and I don't care. I do know that the vast horde of America believes that a white coat=doctor. You could be a janitor, or excuse me, "maintenance specialist" and if you're wearing a white coat people will fall over themselves to get your attention and curry favor. This clinic is clearly ramming thru 3 times the volume of patients for each MD, because each MD is the one that bills insurance. I do know an ARNP cannot be free standing and bill Medicare directly, they must do it under a physician's license number. So the clinic "pumps and dumps". They conveniently have an on-site pharmacy, lab, and x-ray. All geared to squeezing the most out of each patient encounter.
I hate that.
So I was just a regular, Joe Schmo patient getting my flu shot. No questions, no inane comments about my chosen specialty, and no nervousness afoot. I sense that if they know I'm a doctor, they get nervous. I don't want nervousness, I just wanted to get the damned shot and get out. I was treated well and had no complaints about the whole show.
Unlike an a&^&*%e last year who called my office declaring he was doctor-such-and-such and he demanded to be seen. When I interviewed him, the guy had a PhD in biochemistry and worked for a pharmaceutical company his whole life. A**&&**&! You're not a doctor to me. HA!
