Why can't a doctor be more like a car salesman?

     They  are exceedingly customer friendly.  They advertise their product, they seek your business, their staff is trained to be receptive to each customer's needs,  their facilities are welcoming:   in short they do everything possible to attract clients and sell their products.  Profit is, of course, the bottom line, and the concept is to have their customers feel comfortable enough to trust that they have come to the right place to find what they've been searching for. 
    Just park your car and step outside into their parking lot.  A representative is sure to greet you, assess your possible needs, and invite you into a showroom, where you're offered coffee, tea, water.  No overt pressure, no probing questions, just a general  survey of what you might be looking for and and assurance that they are available to show you some vehicles when you're ready to look.  The sales reps  agree with whatever selection or feature you specify or even comment on.  If one person is called away, another is available to step in to help you. You are invited to ask any and all questions, and to call at any time They are invariably friendly, never critical, and never rushed, and never, never rude.
They are well versed in how to please even potential customers; they realize many who walk away one day may return another day.  You can spend an hour or more at a car dealership, possibly just to comparison shop, and leave never to return, and it costs you nothing.  They even keep smiling.
      Re-read the first paragraph and apply it to doctors or health care providers.   By no stretch of the imagination could you say they are customer friendly.  They do advertise their product. They do seek your business.  Profit is their bottom line.  But comparisons pretty much stop there.  Staff in  medical offices are not trained to make the customers, patients,  feel comfortable.  Their first interaction, from their positions behind bulletproof glass,  is to ask how  payment will be made.  The client is branded by birth-date: that is the standard way for them to identify you.  Refreshments are not offered, though a tired coffee pot might be in an alcove somewhere.  Wait times can be extended, though if patients are more than a certain number of minutes late, they will be re-scheduled, or assessed a fee.  Customer opinions are not welcomed, whether about your own treatment, or heaven forbid, something you may have read online, or in a newspaper or magazine. A few questions may be tolerated, but beware of asking for anything to be repeated, or elaborated on.  The "showroom" is posted with signs:    "Stand behind the privacy line. Wait to be called.   Have your insurance card  ready. If your check bounces, you will be charged $15.  Do not change the channel on the TV.  If you don't request  a prescription refill at the time of your appointment, you will be billed $10. (This in a cardiologist's office.)  Turn off your cell phones. If you don't pay your deductible at today's visit, you will incur an additional $10 fee."   If you want information from your visit, you may leave a message on a machine, which frequently goes unanswered.
    Doctors and car salesmen both want you as a customer.  Both businesses are competitive, needing clients to survive.  Your experience at the car dealer leaves you with the feeling they are working for you; even though you realize psychological manipulation is in play, you have the sense of having been treated with respect.  You don't even have to talk finances until you've decided to buy.  If you can leave a medical office with the sense that you are in charge and the doctor works for you, that would be an extreme exception.  Doctors could certainly train their staffs to be more considerate of their patients, they could have live people answer the phones for other than emergencies, they could, should, take the time to review  a patient's records before they meet with him or her, and they should not overschedule:  patients should not be given the same appointment time, and then stacked up in the examination rooms.
      Arrogant car salesmen probably exist, but you've probably never seen one exhibit this trait.   Can you say the same about doctors you have known?