Joey's Take -- At the Doctor's

Call me crazy, but I like going to the vet's. I enjoy being the center of all that attention.

Even though I'm not covered by their health insurance, Mom and Dad make sure I get all my preventive care. It's always been affordable. The veterinarians are upfront about how much each shot or treatment will cost. And they've never prescribed unnecessary tests.

What amazes me is that we've never had to wait months to get an appointment for me. And Mom and Dad have never had to take off from work to get me to the vet's. All the vets we've gone to offer evening and weekend hours to accommodate working parents.

Except for the one time that I had an emergency visit on a Sunday, I've never had to wait more than a few minutes to get in to see the vet. And on the emergency visit, Mom walked me around outside while we waited so I wouldn't give the other dogs my cooties and I wouldn't get theirs.

Another thing I've noticed is that the results of my lab work generally are back within minutes. The longest they've ever taken is a day or two. And then the vet's office always called Mom and Dad to let them know that everything was OK.

If people doctors operated the way animal doctors do, healthcare costs could be cut drastically. For instance, just consider what their waiting rooms cost in terms of lost productivity and wasted time. Those rooms also are germ incubators. If you're not sick before you go to the doctor, give it a few days. Think about it. How often have you seen anyone truly disinfect the waiting room?

And when's the last time a doctor discussed treatment costs with you -- that is, before you complained about the bill? The last time Mom went to a doctor, he wanted to send her to a different specialist for every ache and pain she mentioned. He figured she had insurance, so it would be no dollar out of her wallet. Had she followed his advice, she would have been out of work for weeks just making the rounds and her insurance company would have shelled out thousands of dollars so all these specialists could tell her, "Hey, you're not so young anymore. Your body is going to ache occasionally."

When it comes to healthcare, people are a lot like Pavlov's dog. They've become too conditioned to the way things are. Healthcare reform shouldn't be about coverage; it should be about the way medicine is practiced in this country. It should be about patients becoming impatient with the status quo.

People doctors could learn a lot from the vet's office.