We were discharged from his practice today after not getting an x-ray which he ordered. He became irate, raising his voice with both volume and hostility, saying, "I've been doing this for too long [to deal with sort of conflict]". He would not negotiate to a mutually equitable win-win solution but unilaterally shut us out. I am an MD practitioner of thirty years who has dealt with a large portion of musculoskeletal pathology in the chronically disabled, depressed and impoverished. Based upon my experience, there certainly was an "indication" to order the x-ray. Yet, given my closeness to the patient, my wife, on our fixed senior income and no insurance, the practical benefit of the x-ray would be minimal if anything, other than to document what we already knew about her condition. He went on to be angry for our being late twice and rescheduling once all due to our poor ability to deal effectively with the snowy weather. He also accused me of not returning his calls which actually was not true at all. Certainly it is his right to choose only those who will comply, within certain limits, with his program. For those of us who prefer to question authority, who make mistakes in terms of judging our own limits with scheduling and who are short on finances (in our case for spending a lifetime working with the poor and bereft of our population) he is not the health case provider of choice. read more
