Bedside manner: Am I asking too much?

[oldtrader]

Today, the best doctors do not shake hands. Doctors do not want to pass around any disease or virus from one patient to another. My doctors, always as they enter the room use hand cleaner to eliminate transfer of problems from one patient to another, and do not shake hands, as the patient may contaminate them by shaking hands.

I want a doctor, that is all business, and I have observed over the years, a happy go lucky personality doctor is not always that good.

My former Cardiologist worked seeing patients 2 days a week. The other 3 days he was operating or seeing in hospital patients. He was all business, no jokes, no happy you are here and wanting to chit chat. He was all business. He was the head of the Cardiology Department.

If my heart went to an irregular heart beat, I went to his office, and first thing the staff would do an EKG, and as soon as he could get free he would be there to see me. To get him to work at this big new hospital, they had to supply him office space in private office right outside the Cardiology Section, so he was available to patients he had to see in an emergency. If you were going in the tunnel (MRI), he did not wait for a report but was there with a separate monitor he could observe not just let the ones administrating the MRI, send him a report.

He found the medicine combination, that allowed me to not have any more episodes, except one, that I took one pill kept for such an event, and by the time we could go 1.5 miles to the hospital, I was back in rhythm. I have been on that medicine for over 12 years now.

He does not have a bubbly, lets hug personality that some people want. He is all business, not unfriendly, but strictly business. I wish he was here where I now live.

Give me that type of personality in a doctor any day.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

He does not have a bubbly, lets hug personality that some people want. He is all business, not unfriendly, but strictly business.

And apparently you think that's what I want. I'm glad you've found a doctor you're happy with. I'd like someone that's somewhere in between a "bubbly let's hug" personality and someone who realizes he's taking care of me and not just the brakes on my car or my broken toilet.

[E. Milton]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

Today, the best doctors do not shake hands. Doctors do not want to pass around any disease or virus from one patient to another. My doctors, always as they enter the room use hand cleaner to eliminate transfer of problems from one patient to another, and do not shake hands, as the patient may contaminate them by shaking hands.

The potential infection risk of a handshake has been studied, and there are reports that support, and those that refute, the idea that reducing or eliminating the number of handshakes has a meaningful impact on infections (including studies in areas where the potential for harm is great, like neonatal intensive care units). In my office, with my patients, I wash my hands with soap and water before and after contacting patients (and after contacting surfaces that the patient has contacted). No foam cleansers or gel cleansers are used except in emergency situations.

And, yes, I often shake a patient's hand, and firmly disagree with the assertion that "the best doctors" do not.

[KB4]

I don't really care about charm per se but communication is important. I was looking for an endocrinologist today and googled the names that another doctor had given me and immediately eliminated those whose reviews said that they never return emails or phone calls.