And the patient, on the other hand, thinks something like: "Dr. Berger wants Dr. Gutskener to figure out why my belly hurts."
Dr. Gutskener, on the other hand, possesses a treasure of expertise around the gastrointestinal tract, and doesn't generally feel his role to be limited in the sense Dr. Berger (me) is thinking of. He takes "limited" to mean "within a given subspecialty"--he does GI, not neurology or cardiology. But within GI, he is taking care of the patient referred to him as best he knows how, and that does not mean a minimal approach.
At some point, telling a specialist not to further test and treat a patient is like Ronald Reagan trying to recall a missile that has already been launched by submarine. But I have had patients where I would like to e-mail the specialist and say, politely, Stop!
Zackary Berger, MD, ACP Member, is a primary care doctor and general internist in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins. His research interests include doctor-patient communication, bioethics, and systematic reviews. He is also a poet, journalist and translator in Yiddish and English. This post originally appeared at his blog.
