Medicine in the "Good Old Days"

My dad, Dr. Lou Schopick, always thought of himself as a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. In a French restaurant, he would ask the waiter for "beef stew.” (My Mom, who spoke French, would hint that he might want to say it the French way: boeuf bourguignon.)

His language was also pretty salty, especially when talking about his fellow doctors, whom he didn't always admire.

Since he was our Dad -- and to us, NOT the wonderful doctor his patients adored -- I didn’t always listen to the things he said about the medical profession. Now, I wish I had listened.

It was the 1950s and 1960s, known now as the “Good Old Days,” and the era of medical specialization was just beginning. He told me that his fellow doctors used to make fun of him for opting NOT to choose a specialty. He loved general medicine, with its patient contact. He loved his patients. But his colleagues said he was a fool not to cash in where the “big money” was.

But from what he could see, specialists left much to be desired. He was convinced that they were too narrowly focused, and therefore, couldn't diagnose some of the simplest conditions. In fact, he was proud when the “big shots” would consult him about their difficult-to-diagnose patients, and he would come up with the correct diagnoses.

As an aside, watching Marcus Welby, MD on television with my dad always turned into a race -– between Dr. Welby and my dad, to reach the correct diagnosis. My dad always won.

But he wasn’t a big fan of specialists for another reason: They didn’t look at the patient as a whole person. “One day,” he'd say, with more than a hint of disdain in his voice, “there’ll be a doctor of the big toe.”

I hate to admit it, but his prediction has almost come to pass.

Sometimes my Dad’s criticisms of the medical system went too far -- or so we thought. One day, extremely discouraged with his profession, he told me: “I’ve seen surgeries performed on patients who didn’t need them, simply because the doctor wanted a new house [substitute ‘boat’ or ‘expensive car’].” He seemed very disheartened. I was a teenager, and thought he might have been kidding. Now, 40+ years later, I know he was quite serious.

I wish he were still here, so I could tell him I understand.

One day, he said, “Someone, or a group of someones, will come along to rein these guys in.” (When my Dad was angry, he used a stronger word to describe his colleagues than "these guys." It started with a “b.”). “But those ‘someones,’” he told me, “will be worse than the doctors they’ll be reining in.”

My Dad foresaw Managed Care.

Now, whenever I hear of terrible things happening to patients at the hands of uncaring or incompetent doctors, or when I experienced these things firsthand while advocating for my husband between his brain tumor diagnosis in 1990 until his death in 2005, I think of my Dad.

I wish I could tell him that now I understand what he was trying to tell us.          

Comments

[Gena M McBroom]

In response to the article "Medicine In the Good Ole Days" I too, had a similiar experience that your Dad was talking about. I had worked for a company 10yrs with Fibromyalgia. I did overtime work against my doctors orders. Yes, the company was well aware of my condition & in the "ole days" before the merger, I was allowed to work in ways that helped my condition which in turn allowed me to do the overtime work. But once the merger was completed, after working the overtime, training my new co-workers, acting supervisior, I finally had to go on disability. This meant I would apply for my social security benefits & yes, my company offered me long term disability,which my company being an insurance company, is self-insured. Now in order to qualify for long term disability, I had to go thru the 6mos of short term disability. In the meantime I was approved for ssn benefits & once applied for long term from my company, I was eventually denied for long term disability that my company is the actual provider, as they are self insured. Are you getting the picture now? The Physician's Assistant that worked for my doctor told me that the lawyers for my employer came into the doctor's office, & told my doctor that they did not want to pay for long term coverage & advised the doctors what & what not to do for me because my company also was self insured not only with the long term but my personal health medical coverage. After 5yrs of fighting in court & after they lost the original & appeal, my former employer aka long term coverage had to finally pay back pay + interest & monthly payments until I reach 65yrs old.

So yes I understand & agree 110% with your Dad. The Medical field is not what it use to be. Also if you go in for a visit for one thing & test show another, some will not mention what was found. This is per instructions of the insurance company. One other thing, I use to get trigger point injections at least in 10 different areas. My self insured employer stopped & would only give me 1 shot at a time. Fibromyalgia has at least 18 trigger points that needs to reduce the pain & inflamation. Oh, just one other thing I would like to mention, the doctor would not give me or my lawyer copies of my file, even when we sent him $250 for making copies. I had a larger file. What can one do when this happens. It's always the patients word against the doctor's. He even told me that all he has to do is mark his file, copies sent.

[Alcohol Rehab]

There is some truth about doctors that are starting to get more and more careless when it comes to the psychological state of the ill person.