Alicia, I couldn't agree with you more about the referral issue!  I, too,
get requests by patients to refer, and about 95% of the time I can handle
it.  The public really has been trained (by us,unfortuately) that only the
subspecialist can handle problems, and this idea is so hard to change.  My
current latest peeve is that commercial where a lady has dishpan hands and
said her DERMATOLOGIST told her that Vaseline Intensive Care was really the
best.  So it's no wonder that people think they have to go to specialists
all the time, when the concept is so pervasive in our own media!


Terry Lynn Dise, MD
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