More and more of our medical treatment has come under the purview of corporate medicine/for profit medicine. Many large medical institutions are utilizing corporatized systems, strict appointment durations, network referrals only, dispassionate bureaucratized patient contact, among other things. Many small/medium medical offices strive to remain economically viable and look to the next patient, next test, next procedure for the income stream. In this time of emerging animal rights, the veterinarians are not quite in the same scenario, and hopefully they will not be.
Then we have wonderful institutions like the Mayo Clinic and some others. They tend to be not-for-profit, and they are patient driven. The motto at the Mayo Clinic is that the patient comes first.
Hopefully the patient driven model can be the beacon that becomes the enlightenment.