In her Feb. 2 column “Report card prescription has side effects,” Dr. Katherine Schlaerth uses one sentence to say transparency is a good thing and uses the rest of her diatribe to bemoan the idea of patients getting to report on the good and bad of a professional.

She assumes that because the patients in her previous practice had the means to practice a healthier lifestyle and were healthier as a result, they must have liked her. She then assumes that because the patients in her current practice are poor and uneducated, this will automatically translate into remarks reflecting poorly on her. Nowhere does she indicate she even knows what her patients think about her, assuming instead that because they “don’t bother to seek care until they are very ill,” they must not like her. The good doctor could use a huge dose of “get over yourself.”

Despite asserting, “The patient is not a passive entity in the equation,” Dr. Schlaerth makes it clear she’s completely out of touch with what patients care about most, second only to medical attention itself: the doctor’s regard and respect for (and understanding of) the patient as a human being. Instead of seeing the impoverished person’s decision to delay medical care as a financial decision, Dr. is instead taking it personally and then wrongly interpreting the person’s lack of action as a negative statement on her profession.

Seriously, Dr. Schlaerth, before you take on another patient, try putting your ego on a diet so there’s space for both of you in the exam room.