Many people spend hours agonizing over what health product to purchase, or what color shirt or blouse to buy, or even what to have for dinner that night. Do you know what most people do not spend more than a few minutes deciding? What doctor to select for a medical procedure. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Your health is one of the most valuable things you have in life. It may not be perfect, but no matter what it is, it can get worse, if entrusted to the wrong person. And there are plenty of wrong persons out there either pretending to be doctors or nurses or pretending to be more qualified than they are.
You can read about them every day. Every day they take advantage of gullible Americans who do not spend the time necessary to make sure the doctor/nurse is who they say they are and that they are as qualified as they claim. Many times they get a name from a friend, or see some ad on the internet, or hear about someone on social media. A Los Angeles podcaster who spoke authoritatively on medical issues claimed to be a doctor but was not. He treated a lot of people who listened to his podcast before the authorities caught up with him.
When you are talking about fake doctors or nurses or even licensed doctors and nurses who are unqualified, the damage they can do is enormous. News stories document deaths and permanent brain damage attributable to the use of anesthesia by these people. Sometimes people end up paralyzed or with scarring or other deformities. These people don’t have access to real medications so often get what they need on the black market where the medication can be who-knows-what.
When their patients get in trouble, these people are reluctant to call 911 for fear of being exposed, so they wait and hope that they can fix the problem or that the patient will wake up on their own. Of course, often they can’t fix the problem and the patient gets worse and worse as the “doctor” or “nurse” dithers.
The situation is made worse by the fact that these people are almost never treating their patients at a real hospital. Although even real hospitals can be fooled on occasion, they at least have a process for verifying credentials and making sure the person is who they say they are and qualified to do the procedure they are intending to perform. The fakes and quacks work out of storefronts or offices far away from the protections of the hospital. This means that, unlike a real hospital, if a patient gets in trouble, there aren’t qualified medical professionals around to step in and help out.
For those people who take their health seriously, there are a lot of resources out there to check on the doctor they are considering. Every state has a state medical board which licenses doctors. Nurses are also licensed and in both cases, the public can check to make sure the doctor or nurse is licensed and that the license is in good standing. In many states, and Arizona is one of them, the public can check to see if the health care provider has been disciplined by the licensing board. The public can see where the doctor went to medical school and where he or she did their residency. If the doctor claims to be Board Certified, the mark of a well-trained doctor, the internet gives the public the opportunity to verify the claim of Board Certification. For those who are particularly diligent, they can check the records at the local courthouse to see if the doctor or nurse has been sued before. Often, these records are available on line.
In short, there are valuable resources that do not take a lot of time or skill to use which can go a long way to making sure you are dealing with a real doctor who is qualified to treat you. Don’t be a victim. Take a few minutes and use these resources
