Being Friends With Your Doctor Improves Your Health?

The article, “How Connected Are You to Your Doctor?” reveals that in a study, “…investigators studied over 155,000 patients…about 60 percent of patients studied had the kind of relationship with their specific doctors that could be considered ‘connected.’ But a sizable minority did not. About one in three patients were merely ‘connected’ to an entire practice of physicians but not a single doctor; and just over 5 percent of patients were not ‘connected’ at all.” The study revealed that “patients with the strongest relationships to specific primary care physicians were also more likely to receive recommended tests and preventive care. In fact, this sense of connection with a single doctor had a greater influence on the kind of preventive care received than the patient’s age, sex, race or ethnicity.”

In my experience, I have always found that being friends or more connected with my doctor made me more comfortable talking about personal issues in my life and more open to trying other types of treatments. I have hypertension and being friends with my doctors allowed me to be open to discussing stresses in my life that could have an influence on my blood pressure, like experiencing the grief over my father’s death. Talking about my father’s death and being open about my feelings helped my doctor know the appropriate medicine to prescribe or if medicine was even needed, especially since stress is a major cause of hypertension. When I had insurance, I had a primary care physician.

According to the article, different practice models, from walk-in clinics (docs-in-the-box) to solo practice models, were originally designed to meet the need of the patient, but has instead met the need of the physicians. In the article, Dr. Steven J. Atlas, the lead author and co-director of primary care quality improvement at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, “That business model (walk-in clinics) says we are fulfilling a need, but is it really what patients want, or is it the only thing they can get? You could argue that the way we provide care now is to meet our needs as physicians. We are telling patients what we want to do. What we have to do is flip that around.” Now that I don’t have insurance, I have to go to the health department to see the doctor, and because those doctors see a number of patients daily, it is less likely that they will have good relationships with their patients or be connected with them. I’m sure my doctor wouldn’t remember my name or my recurring diagnoses without my chart in front of her. Also, I’m not open with this doctor like I was with my previous primary care physician who I saw regularly, and I don’t discuss any personal issues because I don’t feel connected with her, which reduces my trust level and comfort level with the doctor. This doctor doesn’t encourage me to share my feelings and my life with her, like my previous primary care physician. I wonder if it’s because of reduced costs, too many patients, and not enough time? So, is it better to schedule as many patients as you can in one day to meet revenue goal, or to leave more time for patient care to improve quality of life?

According to the Spiral Notebook, “In a video-taped study of 171 office visits, doctors who encouraged patients to talk about psychosocial issues such as family and job had more satisfied patients and the visits were only an average of two minutes longer. Incidentally, doctors also benefit from the patient-centered approach, researchers note, because they feel more job satisfaction and are less likely to burn out.” A New York Times article on "Doctor and Patient, Now at Odds," reports that “The relationship is the cornerstone of the medical system – nobody can be helped if doctors and patients aren’t getting along. But increasingly, research and anecdotal reports suggest that many patients don’t trust doctors.” The NY Times blames higher costs and declining reimbursements for the reasons doctors don’t spend more time with patients. The NY Times reveals that “News reports about medical errors and drug industry influence have increased patients’ distrust. And the rise of direct-to-consumer drug advertising and medical Web sites have taught patients to research their own medical issues and made them more skeptical and inquisitive.”

A good relationship with your doctor can improve patient care and quality of life. A Psychcentral article, "Improving the Doctor/Patient Relationship in Medicine," reports that “Physicians who communicate well with their patients and listen more carefully to their complaints score higher in doctor satisfaction scores, have fewer complaints filed against them, and may even help their patients’ health outcomes. Good doctor interpersonal and communication skills, the authors argue, are integral to helping patients get better.” In the article, Dr. Atlas notes that “‘By focusing on new treatments, new technology and instant access, we (doctors) have undermined the patient’s ability to have a longstanding relationship with a doctor, to have a doctor who knows him or her as a human being. If all your primary care doctor does is order tests and make referrals to specialists, he or she will miss the fact that you are stressed out because you lost your job or your health insurance.’”

To have better quality of life and improved patient care, we must be connected with our doctors, so that we can be more open and more comfortable.