Compassion for Patients Is Essential

This letter is in response to “Polishing Their Bedside Manner” (Oct. 1) and the comments of Robert Miner, M.D., past president of the Orange County Medical Assn.: “Try and bill someone for talking to grandma. Doctors would really like to have that good bedside manner, but they can’t afford the time. You don’t get paid for being caring.”

I have to believe that this plastic surgeon is not reflecting the position of the average member of the associations he represents. If he is, then I have wasted the last 40 years of my life and I am concerned for my future.

Since 1950 I have been closely associated with the practice of medicine from the standpoint of the women and men who staff the physicians’ offices. During the 1950s and ‘60s, I worked as a medical assistant for a general surgeon in Orange County, who did care for his patients and who donated many uncompensated hours of care to the indigent. Though not wealthy, he lived very comfortably.

During these years, I was a co-founder of the American Assn. of Medical Assistants, the California Medical Assistants Assn. and its Orange County Chapter. . . . In all of these endeavors, I and my colleagues emphasized above all else caring and concern for the patient. Our creed, like the AMA Principles of Medical Ethics, opens with the position statement, “The principal objective of the medical profession is to render service with full respect for the dignity of humanity.”

We have many physicians in Orange County who subscribe to this creed and do have compassion for their patients. Dr. Miner owes them an apology.

Mary E. Kinn, Certified Medical Assistant, San Clemente