Collaborators in Snooping
I took my sixteen year old to the doctor Friday for a physical and
some blood work. This was done on
my own accord, he had not had one in a while and since we are fortunate to
still have insurance I wished to have it done. I ordered the blood work so that we
could see if his cholesterol and mineral count were good.
His regular doctor was not in; instead
they had a new young doctor that was to do the physical. After the doctor finished the exam, he
came out to the waiting room and asked me to step back into the examination
office with my son. Upon shutting
the door, he proceeded to tell me how my son was doing in school and even
though he was having a few problems in physics not to worry about it and that
he was making good choices in his life.
At this point, my mouth dropped to the floor and I started to go the
front of the building to make sure I was at the doctors
office and had not mistakenly walked into some shrinks office. The good doctor then proceeded to tell
me how he could not find my sixteen year olds shot record and how he really
needed to have it, and that I must make sure that my son has the chicken pox
vaccine and the hepatitis shot series.
I assured him not to worry, my son had all the
shots he needed. He smiled and told
me I could bring the shot record by anytime but sooner the better.
I was completely caught off guard. We have used this doctor office for a
couple of years now and never have we been subjected to such intrusion. When we got into the truck and left, I
asked my son what all did the good doctor ask? He proceeded to tell me that not only
did he ask him about school but such things as "How is your relationship
with your....Father...Mother and brother? ... Do you do drugs, smoke ... are
you sexually active?" Is this
starting to sound familiar to anyone out there? Some maybe thinking, since I ordered
blood work and the age of my son, that some of these questions might seem
pertinent. Let me assure you that was not the case as this doctor was not even aware of the
blood work I had requested. When I
told him I had ordered blood work and would need the proper form to take to the
lab, he asked me why I needed it; and at one point, I thought was going to refuse
it. I had to assure him high
cholesterol ran in both sides of the family along with the white lie that heart
disease was very prevalent. With
that he nodded in quick agreement and got right on it. I will be calling this office Monday
with the hope of speaking to our normal doctor with the prospect of getting few
answers. My normally wary son fell
for this hook, line and sinker, and never once questioned or told the good
doctor it was none of his business.
He said it just never occurred to him to not answer the doctor, he was
checking his blood pressure and everything else while talking and asking all
the questions.
Moral of this story: be sure and tell your kids, regardless
of age, that even the family doctors office you have trusted for years is not
privy to personal family information without the parents consent.
Followup:
I contacted the doctor’s office
and spoke with the receptionist. I
told her I was concerned with all the questions that the doctor asked that did
not pertain to the physical. I
asked her if this was a new policy or something mandated by the
government. She assured me it was
strictly the doctor and not any policy or requirement. However, in today's climate one can't
help but to wonder if in fact there might be more to it. In the doctors favor he made no attempt
to hide the fact that he had asked my son personal questions. We are all a little wiser because of
this, and under no circumstances will they get my younger child alone. My son has been subjected to the
overhead projector questions that the parents will never see the answers to on
a few occasions in the Birdville School
District. He is well aware not to
answer these questions and makes it a point to copy them down and bring them
home for us to read. So this
incident with the doctor raised some red flags very quickly. I pray that the doctors have not been
breached like so many of today's teachers.
It gave me a very sick feeling to realize that this might be the case (See
Doctors encouraged to ask about guns). I have not heard of any new laws here in
Texas that would require this of the private doctor. I suppose it is possible that the insurance
companies may be pushing such an agenda, but at this point I will take it at
face value based on what the receptionist told me. You can be sure we will be much more
wary when we set foot into our doctor’s office.
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