Where is my damn white doctor?

[MillCreek]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ontario-woman-demands-for-son-to-be-treated-by-white-doctor-walk-in-clinic/

This is not news to me: I hear this sort of thing all the time in my clinics, followed closely by 'I want to see a real doctor', when they are scheduled with a physician assistant or nurse practitioner.

[MechAg94]

Does Canada allow people to pay for their own healthcare or are the forced to use the govt system? 

For some reason, I doubt this woman would be interested in paying for it herself. 

[RevDisk]

I'm leery of clearly third world docs with virtually no english as well, regardless of skin color. That said, some of the absolute best docs I've never dealt with had very little english skills. Competency is what is important to me at the end of the day. Docs that are old as dirt, regardless of linguistic ability, are probably my biggest concern. I generally keep my mouth shut and let them do their job. I just review whatever they wrote down and do my own research as necessary. More than a couple embarrassing studies have linked physician age to mortality ratings.

I'm not sick very often, and the majority of time, I just tell the doc whatever is wrong with me. Strep throat (amoxicillin once confirmed by rapid test), lyme disease (doxy after rapid test), cornea abrasions, etc. Then again, I typically do my own stitches and low grade maintenance.

[sumpnz]

My neuro is Indian.  I'll take her over the white woman doc in that clinic every time.  The white dude doc is a pretty close second the Indian woman though.  If my doc leaves for any reason I'd probably go with him, depending on the replacement.

I don't care what country of origin or skin color my doctor has.  I don't care what language they speak best, so long as their English is good enough that I can figure out what they're telling me (and I can understand some pretty thick accents).  I just want them to be competent at a bare minimum, and preferably experts in their specialty. 

The Asian (might have been Korean) orthopedist that saw my daughter was horrible.  The 2 white male surgeons I saw locally (at different time for different issues) were also both disappointing (for different reasons).  But our white female family doc is really good (some of their nurses, not so much - but that was a temporary issue).

Doc in a box?  Take what you can get, and if they're bad make a stink and try to get another doc.  Or just don't go back to that one and find another box.  But most of the time they aren't working in a box because they're awesome docs.

Q: What do you call the person that graduates last in their class at med school?

A: Doctor.

[K Frame]

A couple of the best dentists I've ever had have been Indian or Pakistani.

One of my favorite doctors was first generation American of Chinese parents. Chung Woo.

I don't care if the doctor is foreign born. If they've gotten through medical school and passed their US boards, that generally means that they are competent. I will do research on my medical providers on the web -- checking for complaints and professional board actions, general patient feedback, etc.

The only thing I ask when I know I'm getting a foreign born doctor is about their accent and their English skills. I have a terrible time understanding people with a thick accent, and I don't want to struggle to understand what a medical provider is trying to tell me if they don't have a solid grasp of the language.

[Perd Hapley]

But I have black doctor friends!

[dogmush]

This is one of the places I exercise my rich person privilege.  My wife is one of the 6 or so Nurse Educators at the big hospital in town.  Think like 1600 bed.  I need a doc (Ortho, internal, whatever) she asks the head of the department who I should see, and we go to that person.  Because I tend to hurt myself in interesting ways, twice my injuries so intrigued the department head that they saw me themselves, just to see what was up.

That has become my recommendation.  Make friends with folks in the local good hospital, and get references for who to see.  Not only will you get good docs, if you're asking nurses, the'll weed out the aholes as well as the incompetents.   At that point race, accent, language skills, hell horns don't really matter.  You know you're getting a good one.


Side note:  Folks will routinely read Yelp reviews for hours to pick a restaurant for dinner, but will allow whichever surgeon was next on the roster to cut them open.  Doesn't make sense.

[Ben]

That has become my recommendation.  Make friends with folks in the local good hospital, and get references for who to see.  Not only will you get good docs, if you're asking nurses, the'll weed out the aholes as well as the incompetents.   At that point race, accent, language skills, hell horns don't really matter.  You know you're getting a good one.

That's how I did it when I moved here. One of my cousin's kids is a a nurse at the local hospital, so I went to her for recommendations. I'm very happy with my Filipina doctor. Especially with her small fingers during you know what time. :)

My previous doctor was really good, but I was really lucky. I had no one on the inside for recommendations, and it was during the infancy of the Internet, so no Yelp or similar sites. Not that they are as good as insider information, but they are better than eenie meenie miney moe. 

[zahc]

The Bell Curve theory states that you should prefer white or Oriental doctors for statistically sound reasons: they get the least amount of affirmative-action boost, thus they must be relatively more talented to get to the same level of schooling. There are straightforward ways to calculate exactly how much "virtual" GPA boost or handicap each race gets.

Unfortunately due to institutional racism, a preference for white doctors is actually rational; with no other information, no other basis for choosing, the rational actor should prefer a white or East Asian doctor. Of course, in practice the rational individual will be pointed out as racist for committing the sin of accurate observation, and the real problems will be handwoven away.

[Mannlicher]

I have not been to an emergency clinic in many years.  The last time, was for a bad knife cut on my left thumb.   The wait time quoted was stupid, so I left and returned home to self repair the wound.
I see a lot of doctors though, for various ailments.  I pick and choose my doctors up front,  based on a variety of factors.  My Cardiologist, and Orthopedic doctor/surgeons, my general surgeon, are all middle aged White men.  Last year, I had to see a Neurologist.  He was from Indonesia, and did a fine job.  He graduated from Unpad in that country, and then attended Perelman, University of Pennsylvania. 

[never_retreat]

Asian doctors don't bother me. Packies drive me nuts. You managed to learn no English during 8 years of med school how much did you actually learn.

[BlueStarLizzard]

I don't really care about race or sex of the doctor. I thought I would be uncomfortable with a male doctor for lady parts exam, but then I ended up with a male doctor doing lady parts exam and it really wasn't a big deal.
My issue is attitude. I loath condescending doctors and I will get snappy with them (I almost tore the last dental surgeon a new one)

I think the bigger issues with doctors from foreign places will always really boil down to accent and cultural differences. I doubt it gets as much attention, but I'm betting that white, male doctors with, say, a heavy eastern European accent also have troubles keep patients.

I do think it's funny that you mention Nurse Practitioners and people not wanting to see them. I usually prefer visits with them to the actual doctors. They are much better at interacting with their patients and are generally more focused on you then a clipboard.

[zxcvbob]

I don't really care about race or sex of the doctor. I thought I would be uncomfortable with a male doctor for lady parts exam, but then I ended up with a male doctor doing lady parts exam and it really wasn't a big deal.
My issue is attitude. I loath condescending doctors and I will get snappy with them (I almost tore the last dental surgeon a new one)

I think the bigger issues with doctors from foreign places will always really boil down to accent and cultural differences. I doubt it gets as much attention, but I'm betting that white, male doctors with, say, a heavy eastern European accent also have troubles keep patients.

I do think it's funny that you mention Nurse Practitioners and people not wanting to see them. I usually prefer visits with them to the actual doctors. They are much better at interacting with their patients and are generally more focused on you then a clipboard.

Unless I need a specialist, I usually prefer a nurse practitioner to a real doctor.  My favorite GP docs are osteopaths. (there aren't many of them in this state; I think they have to get licensed like an MD plus a chiropractor)

[Perd Hapley]

Asian doctors don't bother me. Packies drive me nuts. You managed to learn no English during 8 years of med school how much did you actually learn.

Pakis, like from Pakistan? I think that's in the Asia, but it could have just been a rumor, or the Brits may have moved it when they remodeled the empire. Probably wanted the space for a drawing room where Hercule Poirot could solve mysteries.

[never_retreat]

Pakis, like from Pakistan? I think that's in the Asia, but it could have just been a rumor, or the Brits may have moved it when they remodeled the empire. Probably wanted the space for a drawing room where Hercule Poirot could solve mysteries.

I ment the language barrier not the actual location.

[Scout26]

My Nephrologist is Filipino, speaks better English than I. Outstanding Doc.   My Oncologist is white male, referred by Nephrologist, he's really good.  My Oncologist up at Mayo is Handicapped (polio) Nigerian.  Really good Doc.  My GP (white male) here that my Ex- picked is a POS.  I haven't seen him in over 5 years.  I need to fire him and find a new one...come to think of it.