Obviously with that many people, we have more than a few "Dr." Whoevers - and as a kid I sort of assumed the Doc Squad hung out in mutual respect of their doctory-ness.

Turns out there's totally a doctor pecking order!

Reddit user TheDandy9 asked:

Doctors of Reddit, what is the least respected type of medical doctor within the medical community?

And basically, years worth of family beef just got turned into a Reddit thread. lol.

Don't expect to come out of this article with any real answers, though. This is one of those fights that will never end - so it's best to just enjoy the show.

Boutiques

"My family doctor changed his practice so that you had to pay $1000 of dollars just to be in his practice, in addition to every visit. His thinking was his practice would be smaller and he could devote more time being proactive and preventative to those special patients."

"We left of course, but when I explained this to one of our specialists, they snorted in disgust and told us 'we call those boutique doctors.' "

"So a boutique doctor for those entitled who could afford it." - TimeTraveler3056

"Avoiding insurance companies is almost the singular reason to do concierge. Once you contract with an insurance company, they own you."

"They tell you how many patients to see, how you can treat them, what meds they can have. And on top of all that, you have to hire an entire staff to do your billing and fill out endless amounts of paperwork"

"AND you know the best part? That same insurance company will negotiate every reimbursement they pay to you and probably won't pay most of what it is billed."

"So more work, higher overhead, less time to spend with the patient and less reimbursement. Sounds like a great deal, right?"

"Doctors hate insurance companies as much as patients do." - Waderriffic

Not What You'd Expect

"Actually from my experience it's not what you'd expect."

"A lot of specialists hate ER docs because they're jack of all trades so they don't have the in depth knowledge and also they 'create work' for everyone else (ask for consults a lot). It's super unfair. ER docs are just doing their job, treating what they can and getting help where needed. They're first step."

"Another one is orthopedic surgeons, they know a ton about bones and little about medicine outside of bones and are often the butt of jokes for always asking internal medicine to admit patients after procedures."

"From the general public, I'd say family practice often doesn't get much respect, and psych is often disparaged as a 'why the f*ck would you want to do that?' career despite having a LOT of perks for a medical career."

"Now granted, I'm just a medical student in pre-clinical years, so I may get to the hospital and be totally off lol" - rainbowlookingglass

It's Not The Field, It's The Doc

"Speaking as a person working in the medical field for 35 years, the amount of respect I have for the different physicians/different branches of medicine doesn't actually exist. See, it's not a particular branch of medicine that make a Doc great or a less respected. It is the personal character of the individual."

"I have and still do work with some docs that are brilliant, and other ones that I would not let treat my gerbil." - FreePainter9

"My mom was a surgical RN for over 40 years, 30 of which were in the same hospital. She respected the majority of doctors, nurses, various fields as a whole. Not once did she say one branch was better than another."

"However, when my brother, dad, herself or I needed any type of medical care or surgery, she would make sure who was never allowed near us due to reasons you stated; terrible character and a terrible person." - bitterherpes

Just For Insurance

"When you're trying to get a test, procedure or drug covered by insurance, they sometimes go to clinician review, aka peer-to-peer. So some doctors work for an insurance company and reviews cases with other doctors."

"I'm not sure I can respect those guys. Does anyone ever become a doctor just so they can work for an insurance company?" - cerpintax33

"I don't think that's the end game for any doc, but these days it's the MCO's that dictate your practice and essentially your bottom line. It would be much easier to be the doc reviewing claims and approving or denying them for 200k a year than the struggling new doc trying to make a living and paying their student loan debt." - JohnBoy2978

A Parent's Perspective

"My parents are doctors, I left that train a little late, but left it."

"They always said dermatologists are the least respected in terms of knowledge, complexity of field, and technical skill. In terms of just knowledge, many would say general surgeons."

"On the other hand, the most respected (in their opinion) in terms of intellect are general internists, gastroenterologists, nephrologists and endocrinologists. In terms of technical skill, plastic and brain/spinal surgeons and ERCP (therapeutic) capable gastroenterologists." - ahmadove

"Less" Is Not A Thing

"Depends if you're thinking surgery or non surgery. Probably family practice doctors I would guess may get less, but that's not really a thing."

"I don't think 'least respected' is the right way to put it. I don't think any medical doctors are less respected, but they each are sort of picked on in their own specialty."

"Ortho surgeons are known for being big dumb jocks because they don't do a lot of what people would consider 'real medicine,' but they aren't less respected by any means. Family medicine is the least desirable because they don't have a specialty and see a little bit of everything. Desirable - not respected. They all get respect." - P-A-seaaaaaa

I Get The Annoyance

"Family doc here."

"God, it sure seems like we get sh*t on a lot! I mean, I can get the annoyance with some specialists when they get consults, because some family docs are lazy and just pass the buck (type 2 diabetic? Meh, consult to endocrine.)"

"Some either don't know, or care to do the work up necessary to prep for consult (sending to rheum with a vague complaint like arthralgia and not so much as an ANA), and some don't communicate appropriately in their documents what the consult is for (Assessment: Nausea. Plan: Consult to GI.)"

"Those things all bother the hell out of me when I see other family docs doing it, so I can't imagine how upset the specialists must feel."

"However, we have a LOT of goddamn things to juggle and hats to wear, and the specialists have the benefit of saying 'talk to your PCP' whenever it's a topic outside their scope." - Ssutanjoe

Definitely Doing Something Shady

"Physician here. Out of actual medical doctors (MD/DO), I think we all pretty much hate the ones who are taking advantage of people."

"The pill pushers - pain management physicians, whose practice consists of a desk and an prescription pad, charging $300 per visit, and handing out monthly prescriptions for 180 dilaudid tablets like candy."

"The other ones are some providers who have what are known as 'risk contracts,' which are basically managed care plans where they are given an allotment of money for each patient in the plan, and the less they spend the more is left over for them to keep."

"These plans are supposedly promote responsible medical spending, but mostly promote greedy doctors doing everything they can to do the absolute bare minimum for their patients. If your specialty is Family Practice but you drive a Bentley, you are definitely doing something shady." - sailphish

Human Soup

"Nobody's mentioned the doctors who deal with the dead - those the doctors couldn't save."

"Pathologists. Nobody wants to think about them, but they're doctors all the same."

"My husband had worked with a few, and while they still get paid well, they definitely don't get paid like doctors who work on the living. I think they (and their assistants) should he paid triple during decomp season. Human soup season." - HappyHummingbird42

In School...

"I'm a 3rd year medical student in the US. In my opinion, the least respected doctors are primary care."

"Hear me out. Family medicine and pediatrics are objectively the least competitive residencies to obtain. In general, the more competitive medical students pursue high paying, exciting fields."

"While many top students may still choose family med, I personally think that doctors in competitive specialties will always have a small downward gaze upon those who chose primary care."

"It's not blatant, but I think it exists. Family med and pediatric doctors probably get the least amount of credit and deserve much, much more." - HighYieldOrSTFU

"In medical school, the least desired specialty was psychiatry. Obviously, there are some very bright and helpful shrinks. But the saying in medical school is that you go into psychiatry to find out what is wrong with you." - ThrowawayRAcallister

Welp, it was nice talking trash about people who have done way more work than most of us ever will, wasn't it? lol.