Let's Stop Using These BS Terms

Calling a doctor's office an INSITUTE such as Two rivers Orthopedic Institute. When a doctor hangs out his shingle he can't be the founding father of an institute. The term "institute" refers to an entity that combines clinical practice, research, and academic endeavors under one umbrella (another BS term if I've ever heard one.)  I better be more careful.

Clever spellings of terms like orthopAedics, just to sound like a bigshot. It's orthopedics unless you happen to live in England. I interviewed  asked an orthopedic man the rationale for this nonsense and he said it was being used a  nod to the history of the specialty. That's piling BS on top of BS if you ask me.

Calling patients "consumers."  This was tried in the past by calling patients "clients." It did not work back then and won't work now because it depersonalizes sick people seeking help. History is on the side of calling sick people patients, so let's not mess with it.

Let's stop calling dense urban centers with lot's of health issues "medically underserved."  There are lots of medical folks in your nearby hospital. The problem is horrendous, intractable social problems not a lack of medicine or medical personnel.

Doctors who refer to the number patients cared for as a "patient panel." I'm not sure where this one came from, but suspect it has something to do with remuneration. How do you determine the size of your "panel?"  Maybe the number of patients you see per day times  the number of days you see patients. Patients have highly variable levels of acuity. Maybe it would be easier to categorize by acuity before assembling a panel or just say how many people can give you a phone call and be seen by a provider. Yikes, provider sounds like another BS term and that's stacking BS on top of BS. I'm getting into some really bad habits here.

Free pharmaceutical samples from your local, friendly Doc that are not free or samples. UPMC the dominant domineering health system here in Pittsburgh hands out bottles of cheap generic drugs plastered with advertisements for their brand of health insurance. It's enough to make me sick!

Physicians that promote themselves by proclaiming they are a Harvard educated medical specialist. From my experience an Ivy league education does not promise a good outcome. That sounds like a misguided superiority complex to me.

 Two BS terms for the price of one - "experience" and "journey."  Your weight loss journey begins with a surgical experience with our Harvard educated (oops) bariatric surgeon.  Weight loss is not a journey and having your gut rearranged is not an experience.

Here is a real gem. "Work needed to undergrid  healthcare  reform involves a new paradigm in perception." That "paradigm" word has been around forever. Dr. Slambow, my favorite person to scrub with, said that whenever you here that paradigm word it's someone attempting to sound smart when they don't know what they are talking about. Maybe I need to come up with a new paradigm with this foolish blog.