My asthma has been getting worse. Since last summer I have been tired and wheezing. I started to think I should take up smoking since I was wheezing anyway and then I could at least lose weight. Instead I listened to the suggestion of a friend and started using my inhalers (which I have a love hate relationship with). It did make the asthma symptoms better but not perfect and I still have bouts of difficulty sucking air...and I am still tired which doesn't help with the work out. A vicious circle.
What does this all have to do with the book "Blink"?
They did a study of doctors, dividing them into 2 groups. Those who had never been sued and those who had been sued at least 2 times. Trying to discover what made some doctors get sued and others avoid this issue. After researching their backgrounds they eliminated the idea of good doctor/bad doctor. There were some of both in the sued group and the not sued group. After observing, interviewing and reading everything about this group they found that if a patient loved his doctor...he would not sue. In the case of one woman miss diagnosed breast cancer she wanted to sue the surgeon. Her laywer told her in fact the mistake most likely was that of the radiologist. She responded, "no way was she going to sue the radiologist, she loved him...he was the best doctor...she wanted to sue that a-hole surgeon!"
The next step was to have both sets of doctor read aloud while being taped. Then they took the wording off the tape so that all a person heard was garble. A second independent group was brought it and listened to the garble and based on what they heard using the thin slicing ability marked which garble came from a doctor in the sued or non sued group. Remarkably just listening to the garble they picked out the sued doctors accurately. If people paid attention to their thin slicing unconscious they would make better choices of doctors. And if doctos knew what would keep them out of the courthouse they would change their behavior.
Back to my asthma. I had an appointment with Dr. Harless for total evaluation of my lung status. Yes, I do have asthma. I could barely pay attention to all that he was saying because having the Thin Slicing info fresh in my brain I was observing his every behavior. I love this doctor...I would never sue him...he listened to me...he had the perfect body language and he wanted to figure out "together" what was the best game plan. I never felt rushed, he was on time and he made eye contact.
I bet he would have the best garbel.
1 comment:
I think Dr. Harless is great, too! He was caring and confident when my mom was in the hospital and ultimately was so supportive of our decision to let my mom go. He really "got" the whole picture of my mom and our family. I will forever be grateful for his presence during that traumatic time.
And...who could forget about Laura. I would go to battle for her if she were ever sued! People like that renew my faith in the universe. I feel connected to a "bigger picture" and I feel taken care of. . . which is nice for a mom who has to do most of the taking care of others.
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