Cafe Einstein: LPTP #12

I had to see those every year at my own work, run on the treadmill, bloodwork, eye and ear tests, finger wave, the whole nine yards. Turns out they NEVER looked at any of the results and got sued by several guys who lost their hearing and the Doctors never told them it was degrading. I was a firefigher so air horns, sirens, sitting next to loud diesel engines screaming etc, etc so it was expected we would lose some hearing, but we all ASSUMED that the yearly hearing test would show that. NOPE not one person EVER got told their hearing was degrading, until they got sued, and then it turns out ALL of us were losing our hearing, they just never reviewed the results! In the end that company of quacks, sorry Mike not ALL Doctors are good ones like you, and they moved to an actual clinic that also had a contract to treat the Washington Redskins. We actually got better testing AND a review of our results, both face to face with a Doctor AND a copy, of ALL of our test results, to carry to our regular Doctors.

Turns out some guys were using the yearly testing as their ONLY time to see a Doctor and almost half a dozen had to be retired due to severe medical problems, ie almost total loss of hearing, VERY high b/p, heart arrhythmia, lack of lung function, etc. It seems that some of the guys were darn close to dieing, if they had stayed on the job, and the original testing place NEVER said a word, not even to the City who hired them! I went to that original place for over 15 years!!!!! They always said ALL results were sent back to the City Doctors for review, turns out that was all horse pucky!! Fortunately for me I have been going to my regular health care for most of my life for routine check-ups, they often asked for the test results from the City but I was never able to get a copy as they said I wasn't the one paying for them so I wasn't entitled to them. It was probably because they never actually did anything with the tests, just run us thru for show and cash their City checks!

Phil I HOPE your place is better than that and you can actually get a copy of the test results and review them with your own personal Doctor!!

Anniet and Chris,

nice things you found. I should try something like this in my next test. (I hope it will work with some extra points ;))

Damn weather outsite. Rain and snow in an thunderlighting with storm...60 km/h.

@Mikey : DownUnda at least the strategy is the obvious one to the benefit of the patient and rightly so. Normal & abnormal result communication are the responsibility of the doctor who ordered/performed the test. This is indifferent to and regardless of why the test is being done : a private matter, a workplace medical, insurance application, who is paying etc. This has been the subject of some legal action in the past, in the 80's I think, and so is well settled ( I've never known any different during my career ). About a half hour of most of my days is sent personally contacting patients about results. I very much like to 'close the circle' on things ( ie. my obsessive/compulsive side getting a good run ) and the patients love it.

[mount high horse ]
Not wanting to sound too high-handed ( I will anyway ) but not everybody does it that way. I don't know why. Surely the doctor is in the right place and time, with the right knowledge, to do that effectively. Integral part of the job etc, but as I say that was my training from the get go. So I guess that was the approach of my 'old school' teachers ie. very focused on the patient interaction and outcomes. There has been considerable subversion of that in my time, not the least acting at training level. I'm in the role of attempting to polish up medical students prior to graduation - and release upon society - so I may speak with some authority. Alot of that stuff has been lost in the mists of time at the medical schools. Students are awarded full marks for hitting the ten ring on some trendy agenda in current favor ( that endlessly morphs ). But that is in generality only and they commonly fail utterly miserably in any specific instance. One can emit a cutely written essay brimming with catch phrases and banner titles, while averting real life responsibility, the ephemeral substituting for the practical. Poor Joe Public thinks a modern medical degree still resembles a traditional one, differing only in the updating to new knowledge. So we have excellent social functionaries that might ( you can't rule it out ) attend to the easing/abatement of illness in others. Go figure.

I'll add that my views are not at all popular down at my old alma mater, Melbourne Uni ! I have no interest in any particulars of the irrelevancies that have been swapped in place of basic biological knowledge and critical thinking aiming toward good health outcomes at a personal level. Independent of their claimed utility elsewhere they are all equally barren of real clinical results. There has been an empty triumph of 'clever' academic muddlers, they toast each other endlessly. The invites have definitely dived in the last few years since I'm been mumbling such foul heresies. Not my club alas .... :-) :-)
[dismount high horse]

Cheers, Mike.