I left ComicPalooza with a case of COVID. I didn’t meet anyone obviously sick when I was there. No one was coughing or sneezing, I have been vaxxed and triple boosted, yet…
The event ended on Sunday. I felt fine. As Monday wore on, I started to feel puny – headache, body aches. Tuesday was fever and a cough. I called my Primary Care Physician – you know, the one your insurance wants you to go to first. They were happy to schedule an appointment.
“Do you want a phone appointment, or video?”
“Well, I have a pretty bad cough. I think I should come in so that the doc can listen to my lungs.”
“Oh. We don’t see sick patients here.”
Wait. What?
This is a practice that has been my PCP for the last 20+ years. I’ve almost always gone in when I’m “sick.” Really, why are you going to see a doctor otherwise? Just to chat? Get a physical? Talk about your dog? I went in two years ago, in the height of the pandemic, because I was “sick.” Everyone wore masks, used sanitizer, and kept their distance. The world continued to turn.
“What’s changed?”
“Oh, we don’t have the equipment or the facilities to see sick people.”
Cognitive dissonance nearly caused my head to explode as I pictured their spacious facilities, multiple docs, and, oh, yeah, the fact that they are located within the walls of a Level One Trauma HOSPITAL. Yes, it’s the office wing, but…
“We can refer you to one of our partner practices.” She names two facilities that would make it a one-hour drive. Mind you, I live in Houston, America’s fourth largest city. We have 87 million healthcare professionals here.
I went to an urgent care facility ten minutes from my house. They saw me immediately, tested me, and sent me on my way after having *gasp* seen me in person, taken my temperature, listened to my lungs, tested me for COVID and talked about the sad state of medicine where some doctors aren’t willing to see “sick” patients.
By Saturday I was fine and tested COVID negative.
“We don’t see sick patients.” Why are you a doctor? Can you imagine a pilot saying, “We don’t take passengers who actually want to fly somewhere. Can we interest you in a teleflight? Voice only or video?”
I’m now looking for a new PCP. Any recommendations?
Oh no. Well, I’m not sure it’s always their choice to do this. Sometimes they don’t have the staff to do it properly or the money to get the supplies so they have to make the choice to only do the cheap and easy stuff.
In hospitals they often say they “don’t have a bed” for a patient when they really mean they don’t have the staff to MAN that bed. You’d have no nurse or doctor coming to see you.
I’ve been going to the urgent care clinic for basic sickness a lot too. Same situation with my daughter. I’ve tried to get her a dr appt for the next day when she’s sick and I’ve been told that they have to leave the remaining spots for the next day open for people that call in the morning. The front office told me to either take her to an urgent care clinic or to call back in the morning. Such bullshit.
You have some good points, but I think they owed long-standing patients at least a little warning about this transition in their practice.