MEDICAL EXAMINER

MEDICAL EXAMINER
Nov. 24, 1993

Although I am now running clinic at Alabang Town Center and at home in Ayala Alabang Village, my main preoccupation is as Medical Examiner of Insurance Companies such as Philamlife, Sunlife of Canada, Aetna, Manulife. As Medical Examiner I am exposed to a variety of personalities as exemplified by the agents and the clients. There are so many colorful and interesting experiences and I enjoy them all because those experiences keep me young.
Most agents are intelligent and well mannered though there are those who are very assertive as if they own everything. Some are very insensitive to the needs of the doctor as a person and a few are simply stupid. There was this wife of an agent who called me requesting for the medical examination of her husband’s client. She gave me the address but I didn’t know where the village was located. When I told her about my predicament she said it was my duty to locate the place. That I cannot refuse because that was what I sworn to. So, very calmly I just told her: “I will not go there”. I never did swear to anybody that I will go to a place I don’t know where.
Another agent requested If I could be picked at 5:30 a.m. since the clients were going abroad that day and that was their only free time. So I agreed but just to discover that the reason she brought me there that early was to convince the clients to undergo medical examination as “the doctor is already here”. The clients got mad not only at the agent but also at me. Still another agent picked me up to examine a client in the place where the client was working. The scheduled time for examination was also the start of the client’s meeting. So, I waited one hour until the meeting was finished but the agent who was to bring me home couldn’t be located. After another one and one half hour I have to commute back home feeling very bad.
A very unethical agent reported me to a lawyer because instead of giving my medical report directly to the main office I submitted it to a nearby branch office. I cannot forget that agent who shouted in front of my house at 11:00 p.m. because there was brownout and the doorbell wasn’t working. She brought with her two tipsy clients direct from a drinking spree. She was also the agent who never cancels appointment even when the client cannot come on scheduled time and date. How can a forget that agent who reported to the medical director that I do my examinations in the presence of my wife who was connected to another insurance company.
But most of the agents became my friends. The teacher in me keeps on sharing with them my thoughts and experiences on our way to the client’s house and back.
The clients, on the other hand, are a rainbow of different personalities. Mention one kind of trait whether bad or good and for sure I have met one like him or her.