WOMENS-HEALTH Messages for July, 2000: Re: PCP's

Re: PCP's

From: AMD (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Fri, 28 Jul 2000 09:41:04 -0500 (CDT)

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In reply to: jwang,MD: "Re: PCP's"

Believe me, I hate being judgemental based on something as uninformative as a name, but when the only information you have is name, specialty, med school, and year of graduation, it's hard to make much of an educated decision. But if the name looks foreign and they went to med school in India, Spain, or wherever, it makes me suspicious that language may be a problem. No office staff is going to tell you "oh, by the way, his/her english is unintelligible". I have been in this situation at urgent care and it really sucks to not be able to understand the doctor's instructions. And I don't know anyone in my area with my insurance who could give me a referral. The only referral I've gotten has been from my kids ped., and none of those are on our network.

I do call the offices to get a sense of how they operate. Half of them I wait on hold so long that I give up,and probably another 1/3 inform me that they are no longer accepting patients with my insurance (even though the insurance company lists them as accepting new patients).

So this is an exasperating process where I'm supposed to pick a PCP based on virtually no information. I know choosing a doctor based on assumptions about English proficiency is fairly lame, but I know it will annoy me to be dealing with someone with limited English. You gotta start somewhere....

Andrea

At Fri, 28 Jul 2000, jwang,MD wrote: >
>I wonder what an "unAmerican" name sounds like. To quote an old cliche
>"you can't judge a book by its cover" and so you can't tell a person by
>their name. I would never suggest that a patient pick a doctor by a
>name only.
>
>At Thu, 27 Jul 2000, AMD wrote:
>>
>>Is there a trend in the U.S. that American med students are not getting
>>into primary care? I have been going through my insurers web site trying
>>to find a new PCP for me and my husband, and it seems that a lot of the
>>names are most definitely "unAmerican". I'm sure these doctors are
>>perfectly good doctors, but the notion of a PCP who is not completely
>>fluent in English concerns me (I still have bad memories of physics
>>professors in college!!). I was just wondering if this was a local
>>thing, or if this was happening all over the country?
>>
>>Andrea
>
>--
>J Wang, M.D
>Assitant Clinical Prof.
>Tufts University School of Medicine
>
>>**Note: Opinions expressed here are for educational purposes only
>>and, as such, do not constitute a physician-patient relationship.
>>This information is not intended to supplant the need for you to
>>consult with your physician prior to choosing therapeutic options
>>and/or interventions.>
>

Next message: Lynn D. Montgomery, MD: "Re: My mother - menopause and breast cancer"
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In reply to: jwang,MD: "Re: PCP's"

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