Word: doctorings
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...last straw for April Burnette-Dubose of Pembroke Pines, Fla., came one morning when she was 30 weeks pregnant. She had a prenatal doctor's appointment scheduled for 9:20 a.m., but wasn't seen until 11. The obstetrician had just left to deliver a baby, they told her. Which would have been understandable, had the same thing not happened at her three previous appointments. Her own doctor was never available at that practice, says Burnette-Dubose, 33, an attorney, and no one ever apologized for making her wait. Worse, her appointments rarely lasted longer than 5 minutes. She sensed...
...didn't remember." Sam struck out on her own soon after and opened Elite, and now charges patients $15,000 on top of insurance for VIP prenatal care that includes add-ons like a fetal ultrasound photo at every visit, private birthing classes, one massage per trimester, optional home doctor visits, her private home and cell phone numbers and e-mail address, and the guarantee that she will be at the hospital for her patients' full active labor and delivery. In order to fulfill that last promise, Sam, who also has a regular gynecological practice, accepts obstetric patients...
Most physicians who offer concierge health care recognize the absurdity in paying so much to get the same kind of treatment - the non-medical perks aside - that used to be standard. But the model of the amiable country doctor who knows your kids and treated your grandparents has been replaced by a bureaucratic insurance behemoth that rewards physicians for seeing more patients in less time. "Thirty years ago, a family doctor could have had a panel of 1,500 patients and seen them each for enough time, given them personal care and met all their needs," says Dr. Robert Brooks...
...number of American physicians offering boutique medical services remains low - in a 2005 survey of 4,200 primary care doctors led by Brooks, only 16.5% of respondents said they had ever even used e-mail with their patients, and only 2.9% used it frequently. The shift to personalized health care has been slow and gradual, but it's led by a young generation of doctors who are accustomed to having easy access to information, and are betting that their patients want to be able to contact their physicians as easily and immediately as they contact their bank. Still...
...cannot afford the fee, she sometimes offers her services at a discounted rate or for free. "I wish could give this service to everyone," she says, but "I have a family to look after, business to run and life to live while enjoying my work." A relaxed, unflappable doctor is important for jittery moms-to-be. Even more important is a doctor who remembers that her patients even exist. In the months since she canceled her appointment at her last doctor's office, says Burnette-Dubose, whose daughter Chloe was born in February, "no one ever called to find...