funky expectations

While I tend to have high expectations of health care providers, I understand that they clearly can't know everything. But why do we hold them to such an outlandish bar of excellence? I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people complain that their doctor/therapist/insert any type of health care provider here:_______________ doesn't know or do enough.

Here is my question: why aren't others held to a higher bar? I certainly don't expect the cashier at our local supermarket to be held to great expectations, and yet, why not? Why is it that we routinely receive crummy service from the rest of the business world out there and we ignore it, consider it normal, or god forbid, view it as acceptable? Human resource providers, for example, have unilaterally decided to no longer respond to people sending in resumes and this has become the "norm". Restaurant wait staff are rude and we, well, we call that Minneapolis - but still, it can happen elsewhere too, and we usually simply choose not to return. Most store clerks appear to have no clue about their merchandise, or even where their merchandise is located, and so we generally avoid them. Bankers - well, I don't even think I need to go there. But health care providers... now that's a different story.

Yes, I want my provider, whoever s/he is to know things, and how to do things, but I also have seen my doc sit down with me with an enormous anatomy book so that he could better answer my question. Okay, yes, I did initially think that was a bit bizarre, but I also really appreciated his honesty that he might not know everything and his willingness to help me. Plus he had at that point delivered Henry, so I had some faith in his abilities. I think maybe that's my point. Just because we may lose faith in someone's abilities or their ability at that point in time, doesn't necessarily mean that they're clueless. Yet I have seen folks berate, bail on, or make quick judgments regarding their provider when their needs haven't been met to their satisfaction - which on many occasions appears to be a rash and hasty move, while on others it might indeed be completely reasonable.

Are we in general a reactive society? I think we might be. Are our expectations slightly out of whack? Maybe so, certainly on occasion they are. Could we slow down a bit, think a bit more, communicate and clarify more often, hold more realistic expectations of all people and make an attempt at distributing our feedback in a fairer fashion? Could we attempt to share positive feedback at the same rate as we might the negative? As a consumer and a provider, I would like this.

This is something I could work on, and something I'd like to see in others as well. You might say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...