And although it is exciting to trace the pattern of new and emerging medical advances, it is discouraging to find the obstacles placed in the way of acquiring them. Advertising campaigns aimed at consumers, new information available via the Internet, and amazing stories of recovery all foster the imagination of the patient, especially someone facing a life-threatening condition. Patients have high expectations about what can and will be done for them. Because the quality of the information available to patients is often wanting, they are left partially misinformed, wholly misinformed or totally confused. The expectations then become unreasonable.
Some patients become combative.
The antagonism is understandable. Although those who work in health care have become accustomed to the financial pressures, imperfections and limitations of the system, those who are discovering it anew are left aghast, especially given the real consequences for their own quality of life. In our column about the malaise of American medicine, we pointed out that often, in the mind of the physician, it is the patient who comes to personify the frustrations that doctors experience. The feeling, it seems, is mutual. Although patients are certainly aware of the pressures and problems of managed care, it is their doctors who deliver the bad news, who become the pressure point, who manifest the frustration they are experiencing.