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> If you feel completely well before you finish that course, you should be encouraged to call your physician to discuss if it is safe to stop early. Not sugges
by Benjamin_Dobell 9y ago
> If you feel completely well before you finish that course, you should be encouraged to call your physician to discuss if it is safe to stop early.
Not suggesting this is bad advice in general, but man, elsewhere in the world do doctors still speak to patients on the phone?
I remember it being possible as a child, but living as an adult in Australia I'm yet to find a doctor who takes phone calls. They won't speak to you at all unless you book an appointment.
- maneesh 9y agoI email my doctor or call them whenever I have an issue. I'm in Boston.
- mikeash 9y agoMy insurance company has a phone number set up just for medical advice. You initially talk to a nurse, but they'll send me to my doctor if it's necessary. It's much cheaper for them to take a phone call than have me visit in person.
- adanto6840 9y agoI email or even text my doctor, depending on the urgency. It's a rarity for sure, but keep looking until you find one that isn't solely working for their "career" -- they do exist, though they're hard to find and commonly are not taking new patients (diamonds in the rough). You can also look into finding a "concierge doctor", I believe its a somewhat newer business model but is one I had been looking towards for a while until I found my current doctor. I'm in the southwestern U.S. FWIW.
- cicero 9y agoWhen I call my doctor's office, I speak with a nurse, or I leave a message and a nurse calls me back. After talking to me, the nurse may consult with the doctor and call me back, or if necessary, the doctor might call me. I can also email, and I have no idea if emails are directly answered by the doctor or if there is some kind of delegation going on there too.
- gozur88 9y agoMy medical group has a website which allows you to send text messages to your doctor. It all gets filtered through staff, of course, but you usually get a response from the doctor. Sometimes the response is "you need to make an appointment", but it's really handy for conditions you can monitor at home like hypertension and diabetes. I've been called a couple times by one of my doctors after I sent a message when she wanted additional information or wanted to verify something before adjusting my meds. From what I can tell the big problem is doctors don't get paid for phone calls, at least in the US. A doctor who spent too much time on the phone would go broke.