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.
From Reader's Digest
 
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Remaining Character Count:
 
For every patient who seems like they're wasting as doctor's time (dr's perception) there is another patient who is having his or her access to medical care overcharged and underperformed (patient's perception). As a result, patients need to listen to their bodies, do their homework online, and remind the doctors that they work for you. Too many doctors forget this and too many patients are intimidated by the medical degree. It's your body...own it! Being this kind of patient works!

By NY Patient, on 02/22/2010

Do doctors have to wonder why people choose to find medical advice on the internet?

By Mary G., on 01/19/2010

@Rose: Yeah, it's really easy to just quit and star over after spending almost a decade and God-knows-how-much money in medical school. Because everyone else just unconditionally loves every aspect of their job and can just get a new one if they don't.

By Comritza, on 12/31/2009

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