41 Secrets Your Doctor Would Never Share (page 3 of 3)

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Shocking Stats

60% of doctors don't follow hand-washing guidelines.
Source: CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

96% of doctors agree they should report impaired or incompetent colleagues or those who make serious mistakes, but ...

46% of them admit to having turned a blind eye at least once.
Source: Annals of Internal Medicine

94% of doctors have accepted some kind of freebie from a drug company.
Source: New England Journal of Medicine

44% of doctors admit they're overweight.
Source: Nutrition & Food Science; Minnesota Medicine

58% would give adolescents contraceptives without parental consent.
Source: New England Journal of Medicine

Anatomy of a Doctor's Bill

Just how much of the $100 your doctor charges for taking 30 minutes to investigate your stomach pain goes into his pocket? After paying the bills, he gets less than half. The breakdown, according to Robert Lowes, senior editor at Medical Economics:

$3.50 for malpractice insurance

$3.50 for equipment, repairs, and maintenance

$6 for supplies, including gowns, tongue depressors, and copy paper

$7 for rent and utilities

$11 for office expenses, such as telephones, accounting fees, advertising, medical journals, licenses, and taxes

$28 for secretary, office manager, and medical assistant salaries and benefits

$41 Amount that goes into the doctor's paycheck

Over the course of a year, that adds up to $155,000, the annual salary of the average family physician. That number rose just 3.3% between 2002 and 2006, while expenses increased nearly 25% over the same period.
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I like the "please don't answer your cell phone during a visit" one. I like what I see on this website, and it is great. I want everyone to read this article.

By Anonymous, on 11/10/2009
The "We're Impatient" section of this is atrocious. The whining! You've had a tough day dealing with the needily chronically ill and annoyingly dying? Y'all evidently have no idea what it's like to be on the other side (the PAYING side) of the doctor-patient relationship. You say many doctors haven't been to see one themselves in a long time? Well, I highly recommend it. And do it without using your title and don't let on that your a medical professional. I think you would learn tons.

By Petes, on 10/24/2009
As someone who writes Practice Management Systems I deal with doctors offices on a daily basis. When the PMS acts up, they call me. They don't want to hear that it could be user error, or firewall or hardware issues, or problems with the system at the payers end. They want the PMS up and they want it up NOW!!! Sorry, doc. It could be any one of a thousand things. It's going to take time and testing to figure it out and BTW, I'm charging you for every second, even if I never figure it out.

By JustMe, on 10/13/2009
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