Are You An Obnoxious Patient?

CNN Medical News correspondent Elizabeth Cohen wrote an article last month for CNN.com that Christine Miserandino, the founder of butyoudon’tlooksick.com, contributed to, entitled ‘Are You An Obnoxious Patient?’. It starts by telling the story of how one doctor had to fire a patient for being obnoxious. The doctor in question “says he’s all for empowered and educated patients, but some patients have become so empowered, they’re actually putting their care in jeopardy.”

PilgrimTinker has also written on the subject saying:

“I’m not as sure about “empowered patients.” There is something a bit defensive about the phrase. Empowered for what? To use all possible means to get or stay healthy? Sounds reasonable. To demand diagnostic tests based on an internet symptom checker? Could be a problem.” 

I’m A Medical Student: Get Me Out Of Here has also written about patients who have their own agendas.

This all ties in with a post I wrote as a guest blogger over at FightingFatigue on ‘Patients who Google’.

Empowered patients does not neccessarily mean obnoxious patients. In every sphere of life, power can be used well or it can be mis-used and wasted. That isn’t something something unique about empowered patients: some will use the power and knowledge to sensibly aid their healthcare; others will wield the power in an obnoxious manner and waste its usefulness.

The CNN article has some good suggestions to make for how to stay as an empowered patient, but not become an obnoxious one:

1. Don’t demand medications over the phone.
2. Don’t come in loaded with internet print-outs.
3. Arrive organised.
4. Need lots of time? Ask first.
5. Exercise basic human kindness.

For more detail, please see the full article here.

Patients need to show respect where it is due – doctors have done years and years of training and may also have years of experience. They will know things that you don’t know. But, as I said in my ‘Patients who Google’ article, showing respect in a doctor-patient relationship has to go both ways. Doctors have to understand that empowered does not automatically mean obnoxious, that empowered patients can do better and that internet research isn’t automatically useless. Empowered patients may not have doctor training, but they can still become expert patients. And at the end of the day, the patient is the one who should be in charge of their healthcare. I don’t mean they should be calling the shots, just that a patient has the right to disagree with a doctor, the right to go elsewhere and the right to say no to treatments. This veto right should not be used lightly, but doctors should remember that it is there and show patients the respect that they expect to be shown themselves.