As I sat on the table waiting for Perry Weiner I began to overhear a very loud and personal medical conversation in the next exam room, during which Perry described in detail the steps he wanted a patient to take to address an issue with his penis, including "If you have an erection for more than an hour-and-a-half I want you to go to an emergency room." I was of course disconcerted that I had observed Perry violating a patient's HIPAA rights before I had even met him, and regretted my decision to pay for the appointment in advance when suggested by the health portal. When Perry appeared he was taciturn and did not introduce himself even though I am a new patient and this was our first meeting. I described having pain in my groin and in my urethra while urinating. I used a single medical term I read online, "stricture," and Perry gave a long pause and asked where I work with a suspicious tone. I told him my line of work and he didn't seem to accept the answer, then he said "You seem to have medical knowledge." I explained it's common for people to lookup their symptoms online before seeing a medical provider and often they pickup terminology that way. He asked me why his staff hadn't performed an ultrasound on my bladder, as if a new patient would be able to explain to him why his staff did not follow his instructions. These initial exchanges demonstrate that Perry was not concerned for me and conducted the interview with a suspicious tone. When he asked me to turn my head and cough, he said, "You DON'T have a hernia," but later I sought an ultrasound on my own and that was exactly what I had. He examined my abdomen and told me to turn on my side. That was all he said, turn on your side. When I turned, he penetrated my anus with his fingers and applied pressure to my prostate. It's hard to imagine why he would think he doesn't need to explain this to the patient before he does it. He handed me 2 tissues and said "clean yourself up." He then told me "I'm going to prescribe you an antibiotic and something for the pain," demonstrating his lack of interest in explaining himself or including me in decisions for my care. I asked him why he would prescribe an antibiotic and he said "because your prostate is inflamed," but there was no indication of bacterial infection, and in the notes Perry only wrote "prostatitis" with no ICD code, not even "bacterial prostatitis." I asked Perry if we were going to explore a root cause for the pain to arrive at a diagnosis and he said "that could be referred pain" and "see how you feel after the antibiotic, you can always come back." It should be evident from my account that Perry did not show concern for me, was not interested in explaining himself, made no attempt to include me in decisions, and in fact treated me like a suspect. The antibiotic had no effect and I sought an ultrasound, where I was diagnosed with hernia despite Perry telling me I "DON'T" have one. read more
