[tyjen]

Information asymmetries are a bane in the medical doctor market.

Trust doctors with a grain of salt. There are many bad doctors that market themselves as good doctors, but are in reality terrible providers.

I recently had a scare, where I was encouraged by two separate general practitioners to seek immediate care with an ophthalmologist. I visited the ophthalmologist who I was referred to and they said everything was great, then booked my next appointment for a year out. Four days later, I started losing vision in my right eye.

After visiting a competent ophthalmologist, they were flabbergasted by what the other did. Ten appointments within 2 weeks later with the new specialist and we're undoing the damage that was easily preventable.

In short, some doctors are borderline DANGEROUS, but it's difficult to distinguish them with the ample legal protections they receive.

Anyhow, hope your brother recovered well.

[somenameforme]

It comes down to the old saying for doctors, "when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." Rare and dangerous things often manifest in ways that look really similar to relatively harmless and common things. Go forward with the most probable explanation and you're not only going to be right the overwhelming majority of the time, but also keep costs and stresses down for patients. Only when somebody does show up with a genuinely serious condition (or otherwise had significant red flags) do you jump to zebras.

This is likely even more true in modern times with such high rates of anxiety and other similar disorders paired alongside the internet - there's going to be a lot of hypochondriacs suddenly thinking, and subsequently claiming, that they have every symptom of [something awful].

Doctors have very little in the way of legal protections, but malpractice has to actually be malpractice. A recent study on the topic found that in low risk occupations, 75% of doctors end up getting sued for malpractice over their career, and in high risk it bumps up to 99%. [1] When people don't like the outcome, they sue, but in most cases the outcome was largely unpreventable even with a high standard of care.

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-doctors-idUSTRE77G5YS2011...

[darkerside]

If zebras cause blindness, perhaps you should consider zebras?

[SideburnsOfDoom]

Everyone who follows The Pitt knows what a Differential Diagnosis is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_diagnosis

i.e. is there a symptom, question or quick, cost-effective and reliable test that can distinguish horses from Zebras in this situation.

[MegaDeKay]

Q: What do you call the person that graduated medical school with the worst grades?

A: Doctor

[DANmode]

> some doctors are borderline DANGEROUS, but it's difficult to distinguish them with

Bingo.

Some medical practitioners were the bottom of the class.

No different than mechanics.

Can’t hero-worship.

[Noaidi]

> After visiting a competent ophthalmologist, they were flabbergasted by what the other did. Ten appointments within 2 weeks later with the new specialist and we're undoing the damage that was easily preventable.

Eeesh...sorry about that. Been there my whole life. It too ten years to get an appointment with a Hematologist and was finally diagnosed with Erythrocytosis which I told them I had but always said my HCT levels were "not really that high". The Hematologist looked at my records and wondered why they did not send me in twenty years ago. I am on Medicare which makes it much more difficult.

> Anyhow, hope your brother recovered well.

My whole family disowned me for no other reason than me having a serious mental illness so I do not care. But thanks.

[ngvrnd]

this is so true. There's huge variability in competence. and many doctors have fled to boutique medical care, or whatever it's called, since the recent changes in healthcare.