Flu Shot didn't work

[tRidiot]

Why refuse the z-pack? I understand if it's a bacterial vs. virus thing, but is this commonly prescribed just to keep patients from bitching?

Absolutely. Overprescribed just to keep down complaints of "I didn't even get a prescription."


One prescriber I work with prescribes Zithromax and prednisone for every single upper respiratory infection, sore throat, cough, nasal congestion he sees. And every earache gets amoxicillin and predinisone. NOBODY walks away without an antibiotic for any kind of "illness". He has said it is specifically to keep people from complaining.

 

[Shadowrider]

Absolutely. Overprescribed just to keep down complaints of "I didn't even get a prescription."


One prescriber I work with prescribes Zithromax and prednisone for every single upper respiratory infection, sore throat, cough, nasal congestion he sees. And every earache gets amoxicillin and predinisone. NOBODY walks away without an antibiotic for any kind of "illness". He has said it is specifically to keep people from complaining.

Jeeze. *facepalm*

It's been quite a few years since I've been sick enough to go get a script. I guess I'll try to get some labs done next time just to make sure whatever I get will actually work. That's IF I actually get something. One would think that medical doctors would know that this is just making things worse. I know I'm "whiney" when I'm under the weather, but griping at my MD isn't really in my list of things to do if he's done his homework. I guess I just don't get it.

 

[Hobbes]

Absolutely. Overprescribed just to keep down complaints of "I didn't even get a prescription."


One prescriber I work with prescribes Zithromax and prednisone for every single upper respiratory infection, sore throat, cough, nasal congestion he sees. And every earache gets amoxicillin and predinisone. NOBODY walks away without an antibiotic for any kind of "illness". He has said it is specifically to keep people from complaining.

Sounds like my BiL.
As soon he starts to feel a little bit sick he runs to his doctor for aZ-pack.
I try to tell him he's wasting his money but in his mind it works.

As for the anti-biotics, if people think a bit they would realize they kill off the good bacteria as well as the bad.
Like the beneficial bacteria in the gut.
Let the doc be the doc.

 

[tRidiot]

Jeeze. *facepalm*

It's been quite a few years since I've been sick enough to go get a script. I guess I'll try to get some labs done next time just to make sure whatever I get will actually work. That's IF I actually get something. One would think that medical doctors would know that this is just making things worse. I know I'm "whiney" when I'm under the weather, but griping at my MD isn't really in my list of things to do if he's done his homework. I guess I just don't get it.

Labs won't do any good. It's a social/political thing.

Sounds like my BiL.
As soon he starts to feel a little bit sick he runs to his doctor for aZ-pack.
I try to tell him he's wasting his money but in his mind it works.

As for the anti-biotics, if people think a bit they would realize they kill off the good bacteria as well as the bad.
Like the beneficial bacteria in the gut.
Let the doc be the doc.

When payment is tied to satisfaction rates and you have a patient population that is poorly-educated, has unrealistic expectations and you're expected to see a volume of patients that doesn't allow time for teaching/education and/or people don't care to listen and learn or understand, the only thing you get is complaints because the provider "didn't do anything for me."

Let's think... come in to the ER with a cough and cold +/- low-grade fever. Maybe sore throat, maybe earache, headache, whatever. Provider comes in, spends a couple minutes listening to your history of 1 day to 1 week of symptoms. Listens to lungs and heart, looks in throat and ears, maybe feels on neck. Tells you it's a virus and to drink plenty of fluids, chicken soup, stay in where it's warm and get lots of rest. Reasonable?

This patient will often refuse to pay their bill (a whole other story there about who is paying for these visits), complain to administration on the day of the visit or later when they are billed, AND take to social media to complain about said provider on FacePalmBook to the local community, badmouthing their poor diagnostic skills and obvious lack of training because they "didn't even do anything for me" and they "only saw a doctor for less than 5 minutes" after waiting for an hour or two.

Combine that with a payment system that specifically adjusts reimbursement for services based upon patient satisfaction. Guess how that's gonna work out?


It's just one more very very commonplace example of modernday administrative control over healthcare specifically promoting bad medical care and practice. But nobody cares. Nobody in a position to do anything about it, anyways. It's all just numbers on a page.




<edit> And I'll add, that THIS is the mentality that makes healthcare a miserable field, and why I am trying to find a way out. It's NOT just "Obamacare" although that has made it worse. Healthcare is NOT about caring for people anymore - it's about numbers on a page and meeting arbitrary quotas or goals established by people completely out of touch with the real world. That's why I hate it. That's why I and many other physicians I know are trying to find a way out - think about it - do you want to be cared for by a physician who can't stand going to work and can't wait to get out? Sucks, but it is what it is. Love helping people (who really need help) - hate playing political and administrative games.

 

[cktad]

The flu shot can give some people "flu like symptoms", not the flu but makes you think you have it. From the package insert: Common side effects include fever, chills, injection site reactions (redness, bruising, pain, swelling, or a lump), headache, tired feeling, or joint or muscle pain.

 

[tRidiot]

The flu shot can give some people "flu like symptoms", not the flu but makes you think you have it. From the package insert: Common side effects include fever, chills, injection site reactions (redness, bruising, pain, swelling, or a lump), headache, tired feeling, or joint or muscle pain.

Indeed - that's called "stimulating your immune system response."

 

[Powerman620]

Don't know how I keep from getting flu with all the ambulance calls I make a month, gloves and wash like crazy after each call. Knock on wood!

 

[RidgeHunter]

I refuse antibiotics unless I absolutely need them. I understand doctors get pushback for not prescribing something to idiots, but you'd think they'd stand up on this one issue. Almost everyone I know gets antibiotics (unnecessary at th at) from their doc all the time. The ones that don't get them pushed on them - they demand them.

I have zero medical knowledge but even my dumbass knows what antibiotics do and don't do.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Also I had the flu in 2013. Positive test. It sucked but I'd take it 5 times over having strep once. I usually have to work through my illnesses too.

 

[dennishoddy]

M

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