Do you trust your doctor?

(A study published in JAMA Network Open on 400000 people across the US in 2024 showed that only ~40% of Americans trusted their doctors in January 2024 compared to 71% in April 2020).

Of patient-physician relationship, trust should be the foundation

Only if there is trust would patients follow the recommendations

Of their doctors, and if they do not trust what physicians say

It leads to poor outcomes and dissatisfaction in every way

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There are so many factors that undermine

Trust in physicians that it is difficult to define

A pathway to improving this crucial component

Of the relationship between the two, and prevent

Further erosion of trust in the healthcare system as a whole

In overall deterioration of public health, mistrust plays a huge role

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The fee for service model is increasingly obscure

To both patients and physicians, healthcare providers are unsure

Of the costs of services that they provide

While patients perceive they’re being taken for a ride

While insurance and pharmaceutical companies increasingly dictate care

Patients interact only with their healthcare teams, they are only aware

Of what they are told by their providers, and if their care is too expensive

They unfortunately view their doctors in a manner negative

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This is a predicament that I reflect on every day

This is a challenge that is not expected to go away

How do I make patients believe that I’m on their side

That I make recommendations in good faith and have nothing to hide?

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I think it is imperative for me to familiarize

Myself with costs that patients face, I’ve realized

That often my evidence-based treatment plans for patients designed

To improve their conditions are unaffordable for them- I find

Belatedly that the reasons behind their noncompliance (and resentment)

Are the skyrocketing costs to a great extent

I try to gain their trust at the first meeting before

Adding on procedures and medications more

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It would be dishonest of me not to say

That the system incentivizes us in such a way

That we lean towards doing more procedures indeed

Thus patients are recommended procedures that they may not always need

The truth of unnecessary procedures probably has been overblown

But the erosion of trust is largely due to this factor alone

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My trustworthiness is at the heart of what I do

I hope I can not only build but uphold patients’ trust in me too