Some personalities are more difficult to deal with. That’s the nature of life. But, do difficult patients receive lesser medical care? That is the question Dr. Dena Rifkin is asking in her post from Poked & Prodded.
In her post Dr. Rifkin describes two scenarios – one steadfastly polite and appreciative patient, and the other a more coarse an persistently angered personality. Does one receive better care than the other? This got me thinking about my experiences with my own patients. There are times when 15 minutes spent with an ornery patient feels like an eternity, and times when 15 minutes fly by because a particular patient is so pleasant to engage with. There are times when I get frustrated that a patient isn’t following my advise, and times when I feel life as a physician is easy because a compliant patient received a good outcome. However, the trick is to treat all your patients equally, regardless of the nature of the encounter. How each physician does that it up to their style.
For every one physician there are thousands of patients, each with their own personalities and medical experiences. It is the job of the physician to be able to adapt to and understand each of his or her patients and be able to work with them in order to provide the best medical care possible. However, a patient’s personality can definitely be a factor in the doctor-patient relationship. To a certain extent, if someone isn’t willing to engage and share responsibility in their medical care, they may not receive the outcome they are hoping for. Just as much as we want patients to get well, we need the patient’s help in getting there. And when it comes to more “difficult” patients, I don’t believe that they necessarily get worse medical care. Doctors, as I have come to know them, tend to be perfectionists and their own worst critiques. I have faith that regardless of how difficult a patient or situation may be (within reasonable limits), a physician will do his or her best to offer the same quality of care to each patient.
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.