Peer pressure: When your colleague is your patient

Treating a patient who is a physician can be a testimony to your skill and reputation. It can also be daunting, and a challenge to your patience.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. July 14, 2003.

Melicien Tettambel, DO, has found some truth in the saying, "Doctors make the worst patients."

The Kirksville, Mo., obstetrician-gynecologist was treating an emergency physician who was pregnant and seemed set on a home delivery. Dr. Tettambel recommended an early glucose screening for gestational diabetes, but the patient and her husband, an internist, disagreed, saying she wasn't at risk.

Eventually, Dr. Tettambel convinced the doctor-patient and doctor-husband to do the test. The results came back borderline high.

As a result, the pregnant doctor wanted a litany of other tests. In the end, the patient-doctor and the treating doctor couldn't agree, so they severed their relationship.

"She went from denial to wanting to do all these extra tests," said Dr. Tettambel. "Some women physicians tend to really worry."

Many physicians and behavioral experts agree that doctors can be difficult patients.

Some physicians take shortcuts on their own care by substituting a colleague's curbside consult for a regular exam. When they do go to a doctor's office, some seek greater control of their treatment than the average patient, making it tough on physicians who treat them. Others want preferential treatment.

"Are there physicians who are pains in the ass to be patients? The answer is yes," said Wayne Sotile, PhD, co-director of Sotile Psychological Associates in Winston-Salem, N.C.

One of the trickiest issues in treating a physician is getting the doctor to see a doctor. "Doctors tend to take care of other people first and themselves last," said Steven Farber, MD, a cardiologist in Conroe, Texas.