Wellness

[sfnative]

@lil punkit

So sorry this has happened to you as well and hope you're able to connect with an excellent replacement.  Finding a decent replacement is a real challenge for sure.  Best of luck!

[NicksmomESQ]

  My PCP  retired with only 30 days notice to his patients.His son who worked with him decided months before that he would not take over his practice.He decided to join A practice 20+ miles away!! This left us all in the lurch. We tried contacting the retired doctor to ask for a local referral.After all he was in practice for 40 years.All he would say is travel to "my son's new office.I have no one else to refer you to"!!.

 I still haven't found a new PCP.My family has been going to a nearby Urgent Care office!!

 I can't believe ​that after 26 years of treating with this doctor he just turned his back on us!! He went from caring to not giving a darn!!!

[sfnative]

@sassenach1

Now that this has occurred and looking at the last 3 years, it appears my doc had some sort of issues.  When I first moved here after retiring, this person told me he/she had just moved from 30 miles south to get away from a bad practice.  After practicing here in the city for about 2.5 years, this doc left for a practice near home, 30 miles south, citing issues with the practice and driving on icy roads in winter.  We followed this doc south, as this person was an excellent clinician.  During this doc's time at this "new" location, he/she constantly complaind about the "stupid" people and has now simply left, after working a part-time schedule.  Clearly, though an excellent physician, this person has issues that I cannot begin to understand or care to understand.  What irks me is this doc did not care enough about patients to send a warning letter.  For those patient like myself who are medically complex and on several medications, continuity of care is paramount.  Being left in the lurch is more than a pain in the neck.  it could compromise the health of some of this person's patients, hence the query.

[sfnative]

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@gracie2014 wrote:

@sfnative Why did she just up and leave the practice? We had a case in which one of the partners was observed groping female patients..the practice ended up closing..it went to trial..he was not allowed to practice for quite sometime..but can practice again..only on males..not allowed to see female patients.

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@gracie2014

We'll never know why she left.  This type of information is not available to patients, as it is deemd extremely private information.  I honestly believe it was her choice, as she had bounced back and forth within 3 years with 3 practices, kept complaining to me about staff inadequacies (because I worked in healthcare) and I think something just ticked her off and that was that.  I had an appointment with her on the Monday just before the Friday she left and she could have said something to me at that time, but did not, so her departure may have not been planned.  Clearly, I'm just guessing.  I don't really know.

[sfnative]

@Carmie

Of course she can do what she wants(!)

However, physicians are held to a higher standard!

All but 8 years of my professional life I have worked closely with physicians.  The last position I had prior to retiring fairly recently was as division head of a large surgical training entity in a very large hospital and medical school.  Believe me - I know what is expected of physicians and it's much more than your garden variety trash collector or Silicon Valley engineer.

Simply dropping of the map without communitation, and that includes the practice manager, is inexcusable.

BTW, in yesterday's mail I received the oddest little letter.  It was from the new Nurse Practitioner associated with the group practice from which my Internist just departed.  In this letter, which was not on letterhead, the NP indicated she would no longer be my PCP nor would she be available for consultations.  Very, very strange.  I have never seen this person and don't know her from Adam.  Seems she's covering bases or something.

[Pook]

Just because they are doctors does not make them responsible for you.  They are leaving a job - nothing personal - just like when we leave jobs and move on. 

[sfnative]

@terrier3

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@terrier3 wrote:

Remember the famous line "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor?"

That never was true, for one important reason - doctors are free to go in and OUT of service provider agreements/practices/groups at will. They don't have to sign up for a year at a time, like we do during open enrollment.

They are businessmen/women who work for themselves and can change practices, payment methods, whatever they want, whenever they want.

A woman who works with me has a cardiologist she really likes. She just got a letter from the practice saying he was no longer there and she would be switched to a new doctor. It took her a while to find out that her old doc had changed practices and part of his contract was NOT revealing where he was going. He wasn't allowed to contact his old patients, who were legally "property" of the practice!

I think we sometimes assume that because medicine is a "caring" profession - that practitioners should be more concerned with their patients well being.

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Hi Terrier - long time - no see...

Yes, this is so true.  Simply the way the industry works.  However, where I come from, physicians are held to a higher standard.  Though I quite understand the rules of the practice and also those that bind them during changes to another practice, it results in a lot of frustration for patients who would like very much to continue with that physician.

In my case, I place the blame on my doc for not sending out a letter to her patients.  This has been done previously, but clearly she simply didn't care enough to do so. 

Your last sentence speaks volumes.  Many on here may scoff at it, but, again, due to my experience in the profession I do know that physicians are held to a higher standard.

[Desertdi]

Yes!   Two of my late mother's doctors just up and joined medical groups in the newer suburbs..........way out yonder on the desert.   Neither one gave any announcement, or referred patients to another physician.

[Carmie]

@sfnativeHeld to a higher standard, by whom? Ah, physicians are human.  Life happens.  They get burned out, they get sick, they have family problems.  Some have stress that they can't cope with.

I had a wonderful doctor quit when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, he didn't tell his patients why he left, he just left. I figured out what happened when I saw her obit in the paper.

Their life, happiness and family is just as important as yours and mine.  Sometimes we have to do what we have to do.

i was amused and a little taken aback when my youngest granddaughter was born.  The pediatrician was called to examine her after birth.  She arrived at the hospital with her own two children who were about 3 and 5.  The kids were running around and acting like kids while their mother, who was dressed in shorts and a t shirt with a message on it examined my GD in the same room.

Since then, I have seen physicians make their hospital rounds with their kids in tow. It's quite common.  They are human as we all are.  We are all held to the same standards in my book.

I have two nieces who are physicians, another one is a Psychiatrist and one who is a physician assistant plus I have a nephew who is in premed.  They are all dedicated to their patients, but they have a spouse and kids, (one has twins)  to worry about too. They are not super human beings.

[Nomore]

In military health care, you never really know who you're going to see. There  are PCM's now, but they move on at a moment's notice. 

Back when single, I lived in WA state, it was hard to find a doc who could see new patients. After searching for bit, my first visit to the doctor was good, but when I needed to go back for a followup, the office was gone, closed up. Never knew what happened until a month later when it was reported in the newspaper about his self-inflicted death; he didn't just abandon his practice, but life. I'm just saying you never know what's going on, there may be circumstances for someone to leave without notice. So, I wouldn't report it.