One of the most frustrating experiences of health and mental health treatment in the U.S. is the inability to actually talk to your doctor or therapist when you call them. Or to receive a timely callback. My wife has literally tried contacting one of her doctors for weeks without response.

Now, while I understand doctors and therapists need to actually do work throughout the day and can’t always get to the phone, what about in the case of an emergency involving one of their patients?

Tara Parker-Pope over at the New York Times health blog, Well, notes an article published in last months’ Annals of Internal Medicine that chronicles one doctor’s attempt to contact another doctor about one of their patients who had to be hospitalized. A doctor can’t reach another doctor, even when it’s an emergency, because many hospitals and clinics have purposely put up multiple layers of barriers to prevent just such contact.

While the full article isn’t available online, a reading of the comments to this entry is both telling and disturbing.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by John M. Grohol, PsyD (or subscribe to their feed).

Comments

This post currently has one comment. You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts on our new comments page.

Trackbacks

No trackbacks yet to this post.

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 19 Mar 2008
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.