The Good Doctor Assumption

"That doctor is good!" one friend tells another.

But what exactly does that mean? Good as in "good doctor skills" or good as in "good person, good heart?"

To paraphrase a quote found in a 2004 article by Barbara Kellerman:

. . . health care is not a moral concept. Doctors are like the rest of us: trustworthy and deceitful, cowardly and brave, greedy and generous. To assume all good doctors are good people is to be willfully blind to the reality of the human condition.

Is it absolutely necessary that our doctor actually be a good, moral person? As long as he or she has the skill to get us and keep us healthy, does it matter if our doctor lies and cheats? Do we really need to care whether or not our health care provider is a selfish, greedy jerk?

And what about the health care system itself? The insurance companies, the beauracracy of institutions, and the politics of Obamacare?

In this age, we cannot afford to think that a skillful doctor is inherently a good person who always has our best interests at heart. Furthermore, we can no longer take for granted that the affiliations (the hospitals, clinics, drug companies, etc.) of a skilled physician also have our best interest at heart.

There are too many bad people out there.

And of course, the corollary is just as true, also. Just because a doctor is compassionate and morally pure, does not mean that he or she has the necessary skills and aptitude to heal us. So if it came down to a choice between the corrupt doctor who has great expertise or another with great ethics but lesser proficiency -- who shall we pick?

It's a tough choice. We need our physicians to be good; good in the mind, hands, and heart.

Especially now, more than ever, with all the health care changes raining down upon us, it is important that we find doctors who will not just help us heal with their skill and intellect, but who'll allow us, as patients, to trust them because of their integrity and heart.

And for those of us who have been called to serve as doctors, we must do our utmost best to become good and be good. Each and every day.