> Probably there are other professions in which one gets better service if one has an inside connection, but this situation really speaks ill of how medicine is practiced.

Having a doc in the family is a mixed blessing at best. You can get priority treatment, and the benefit of your family members full attention. On the flip side, all the docs I know that aren’t fools or morons don’t treat their own family for anything more serious than a scrape. You’re biased, you don’t want the guilt of an error, and you don’t want to be the bearer of bad news. I frequently ask my wife not to ask me about her mother’s health developments; I’d rather tell comforting lies than be a source of sour truth.

Being a VIP in a medical center due to your relatives gets you more ass kissing, not better care. People don’t want to step on toes, or give the impression that useful care is being withheld. And if your relative is a worse doc than the one you’re seeing? No one is going to overrule your family member to your face.

The value I would see in having a physician as a close relative is in learning how to communicate effectively with other physicians. Then one could in theory need fewer visits to their own doc to get to the bottom of a problem.

That’s actually a problem. When I myself see a doc, I make a point of being as colloquial about it as possible. Part of our training is about taking what people say and converting it into technical symptoms; when people start to “communicate effectively” it heavily biases us towards certain diagnoses. The more intelligent/educated the patient the more likely we are to take one of their word choices at face value.

Personally, all I ever want from a patient is a clear timeline of events, their best attempt to articulate what they felt, a list of scripts, and old medical records (especially imaging.) The patient that can give me that has made the task of helping them 1000x easier.

That’s really helpful to know.