My former PCP is former largely because of his arrogance. (The fact that he messed up some critical prescriptions and forced me to wait more than a hour an a half simply added insult to injury.)
I read of a more egregious case today on the New York Times Now web site heded Woman Sues a New York Hospital for Forcing a C-Section. Can Doctors Do That?
I know not all physicians are guilty of such chutzpah. I have a vascular surgeon - Jeffery Hertz - and an orthopedic surgeon - J. Sudler Hood - who, despite being tops in their fields, are anything but arrogant.
According to the NYT, Though the doctor claims he did not force the woman to have a C-section, her hospital record included a note signed by the hospital’s director of maternal and fetal medicine that said, “I have decided to override her refusal to have a C-section.” Per the Times, the note added that the hospital lawyer had agreed.
The Times went on to note that The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is crystal clear about how they feel about forced C-sections: Their ethics committee says it simply “cannot currently imagine” a situation in which any pregnant woman should be forced by the judicial system or her doctors to have surgery she does not want.* It doesn’t matter if the doctors believe a C-section is in the best interest of the fetus—the mother’s autonomy trumps that.
I find that interesting because when I requested my now-former PCP to add a Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test to my lab order, he refused citing it as having no value.
At the same time, my Medicare Advantage provider promotes the test in its mailings to its customers.
I know that the practice is very cautious to avoid "unnecessary" charges that might anger my Advantage plan provider (which seems to be the practice's primary source of income, certainly its preferred insurer), but to refuse to order a test the plan provider considers necessary is, to my mind, penny wise and pound foolish.
At least my (now former) PCP is not a surgeon; the worst damage he can do is to screw up my prescriptions and order changes I know to ignore.
The state of medicine in America.
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