Outpatient Clinic

Today I shadowed Dr. Karthik in his outpatient clinic. He briefly showed me his list of patients for the day and I was impressed at how long this list was. There was a patient scheduled every 10 minutes! of course this is not nearly enough time to take a history, do a physical and develop a treatment plan...the patients sit outstide, waiting to be called in for hours.

I am so impressed that despite the long waits and seemingly carelessness of the patient-doctor interactions (due to time constraints), the patients have this profound respect for the physicians and are so grateful.

I met this middle-aged Indian woman today who had come in with and MRI of her spine and was told that she would need surgery. She and Dr. Karthik went back and forth (everyone here speaks Tamil, which is a dialect in south India) discussing the alternatives. I was so impressed and how strong this woman was. First of all, she came in alone. Most the female patients we have seen thus far had come in with their husbands and despite being the patient, their husbands gave their histories and did most of the talking.

I could see that Dr. Karthik was getting frustrated as he did not seem the think the converstation was going anywhere and his list of patients was not getting any shorter.

In the end she was referred out to a neurosurgeon.