Opinion
The biggest issue in the complex health care equation: Diminishing time spent with patients
LETTER — Posted Dec. 19, 2005
Regarding: "There is a little understood, pernicious ripple effect of high liability premiums" (Letters, Nov. 21):
I continually read with a mixture of anger, frustration and amusement regarding solutions to the "liability crisis" and escalating health care costs.
To my knowledge, no one has expressed the largest factor in the complex equation of good health care. To me, that seems patently obvious to be the ever-decreasing time allotted to the physician-patient interaction driven by economic considerations only. I find that this has not been adequately amplified to an ever-frustrated and unhappy consumer, as well as the caregiver.
Otto Kahn, MD, Arcadia, Calif.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/12/19/edlt1219.htm.