During my youth, my private-practice family doctor often wore a stethoscope around his neck, and monitored his patients’ heartbeat on a regular basis. (As I recall, he also sometimes wore a light attached to his forehead like a coal miner and would have me “open up and say ahh”, but maybe that was because I had the flu or something like that.)
My current doctor, who works at a medical clinic, has never used a stethoscope on me or monitored my heartbeat in any way other than the nurse taking my blood pressure for each visit though I’ve had some borderline high blood pressure readings in past visits. Also, after doing an initial test for cholesterol levels, they’ve never tested my cholesterol again on subsequent visits although I’m middle-aged and had a borderline high reading with a mild warning given on my initial test. I’ve never had a heart attack or been hospitalized. One other thing is I doubt they’ll check my cholesterol unless requested even though they just prescribed a medication that comes with warnings to monitor cholesterol due to potential drug side effects.
Is this because I’m going to a clinic and maybe the doctor has time or budgetary constraints, or are stethoscopes just an antiquity now?
My GP always listens to my chest & back during a physical, or if I show up with some respiratory complaint. I think he’s listening for my breathing much more than my heartbeat though. But he uses an utterly normal looking stethoscope when he does so.
I had a colonoscopy yesterday (went just fine, thanks), and the doctor who checked me out just beforehand used a stethoscope to check my heartbeat (from the front) and breathing (from the back).
All the GPs at my doctor’s office use stethoscopes (although they don’t wear them all the time as they get in the way). They also sometimes use the light to look down my throat, either handheld or on a headband (seems to be personal preference).
I vote for GreenElf switching doctors too if it’s a practical option.
My GP has a stethoscope. We don’t really do routine checkups over here, but when I’ve brought my kids in for strep and chicken pox and whatever, he’s always used it to listen to their chests and backs. I think that was for breathing as well as heartbeat.
I’m on statins and a couple of other things that require monitoring for side-effects, but I’m expected to take the initiative to make the appointments for the tests - the doctor gives me the order form for the next set of blood tests and says to get it done in about six months’ time, or whatever. Likewise, when it’s done, I make the appointment for the doctor to go over the results with me. Seems to me a perfectly reasonable way to proceed.
(But no, my GP hasn’t used a stethoscope on me in ages, presumably because I don’t present with any symptoms suggesting a heart problem).
I was real worried where the stethoscope was being used for a moment. Usually people don’t need hearing enhancement to hear noises from that end of me.
Anyhoo, my doc still uses a stethoscope pretty much every time I go in for a regular check up or I am complaining of some sort of cold or flu (year before last had a cold that would not go away and she checked my breathing).
Uses the little light on a stick too, and a tongue depressor and say ahhhh. Along with entering all information into a computer in the exam room, which enables the staff to order tests and send prescriptions and all kinds of other cool 21st century medical stuff. Yet, the nurses still take my pulse by holding my wrist.
I can see if you are going into a clinic only for emergency visits that the doctor would not listen to you each time. That said, the only cases where I don’t listen to the patient is if they come in for some clearly localized thing (like knee pain or a rash), and I have seen them for a routine visit within a reasonable amount of time. If you have a relationship with a primary doctor, they should be keeping tabs on things like your cholesterol and if your heart and lungs sound OK. Every doctor I know has a stethoscope and uses it regularly. With the cholesterol, if you have a relationship with a primary doctor, they should be reviewing it periodically, particularly if you are on medication that affects it. It sounds like you need a primary care MD and not just to go to a clinic when you have a problem.
And… since I have white-coat hypertension, he’s taken my BP the old-fashioned way, and used his stethoscope.
He also uses what looks like the same basic otoscope that my pediatrician did back in 1975, except I think my GP’s is a bit thinner and uses AA batteries rather than C like the older one (batteries have gotten a lot better).
By “My current doctor, who works at a medical clinic”, I mean my current primary care GP who I see whenever I have a health issue, and I have to go to him for referral to any specialists to be covered by insurance. I go to the walk-in clinic only for a weekend emergency such as tetanus shot after an injury, but go to my GP when his office is open. He’s been my doctor for a few years.
Replying to a previous poster, of course I arrange my appointments without any hand holding by the GP, but he probably would only order a cholesterol test done at my request rather than to any concerns of his own regarding possible side effects.
To clarify, are we all referring to using a stethoscope during a physical on something like an annual basis, or during each appointment with the GP? I don’t think I’ve had a physical since I played high school sports.
Yes, I was referring to an annual physical. If I go in for a specific ailment, his usage of a stethoscope was dependent on my description - when I had a bad cold that I couldn’t shake for a few weeks he listened to my chestd and did the whole throat, nose, eyes check, but when I had a frozen shoulder, he did not.
My doctor may not hang his stethoscope around his neck, but he always has it with him and may check my heartbeat–from front and back–any time I am at an appointment in his office.
As for blood pressure, a member of his staff gets that with other vital signs, at the start of each visit. They use a state-of-the-art electronic sphygmomanometer, and a clothespin-like attachment to record my pulse.
Yesterday my new-to-me doctor used a stethoscope on me front & back. The nurse had used a blood pressure cuff & stethoscope to get my BP. She checked both the heart & the lungs.
I would look closely at getting a different doctor if I had experienced what the OP first posted.
BTW, be sure that the staff is using the proper cuff for you. I am a fairly large fellow & I have always had marginally high blood pressure, until I was at my last doctors office. His staff used a cuff marked “LARGE” on me & I was in the normal range. I then asked them to try the “normal” cuff on me to see what my BP was. It read in the marginally high range, about 20 point higher than the “LARGE” cuff read. The tests were done about 20 seconds apart.
This may help you to not get misdiagnosed with high BP when you are normal. I have no idea why this made a difference, but it did for me. IHTH.
I see my GP at least four times a year - once for a physical, and the other three times for blood work. He checks my breathing and heart with a stethoscope every time.
The only doc I saw as an over-25 adult was an Oncologist/Internist (referred because of cancer scare). When I moved, I always asked for an Internist ‘who didn’t have problems prescribing Sch II drugs’.
In the last clinic where they had a chart on the wall with names and specialties, none read ‘GP’.
Or are we using ‘GP’ to mean ‘any PCP, regardless of medical specialty’?
And, as to OP: In nmy experience, the way you tell an MD in the crowd at a hospital is:
Starched white lab coat
Stethoscope around neck
My (Internist) PCP comes in after the nurse has weighed me, hooked me up to the BP/Pulse machine and stuck a thermometer in my ear. The first thing she (doc) does, should I mention anything vaguely related to blood oxygen levels and/or respiration is to whip out the 'scope and check fore and aft.