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The Value of a Doctor

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Final Research Paper – The Value of a Doctor
In recent years, greater and greater emphasis has been placed on meeting the demands of the growing population. In regards to the American health care system, the nature of medicine is shifting from treating the individual to the management of many patients, resulting in physicians influenced to be more focused on curing the disease than healing the patient. In order to follow the expectations of the progressively mechanized medical system, these doctors are more and more pressured to limit the time with each patient to maximize efficiency. The increasing compartmentalization of a physician’s time has changed the occupational structure of the field, and has consequently depersonalized patient …show more content…

And time in the hospital is the most precious of commodities…Whenever I was trapped in some patient’s room, I could feel the next clinical task pushing at me” (Chen, 172-3).ii In such a fast-paced environment, while doctors would most rather take their time in fully getting to know the patient, they must instead consciously compartmentalize their time in order to adhere to the procedures and regulations mandated by the hospital. Working in more managed health care settings also contributes to the dilution of physician-making authority. Prescriptions and treatments are increasingly monitored and regulated by insurance companies, and often by those without formal medical training. In his documentary, “Sicko”, Michael Moore interviews patients denied care because they had inadequate coverage from their insurance plans, and former employees of insurance companies who described cost-cutting methods that encouraged insurance company physicians to deny medical treatments. Moore exposes the distressing fact that treatments are increasingly dependent on insurance company policies than what the physician believes is truly the most beneficial for the patient. As a result of this insensitivity of the American medical system, physicians in such managed health care settings are constantly forced to provide inferior care – both in terms of quality treatments and the amount of time spent –

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