Had a patient show up in the ER yesterday DEMANDING an MRI of her neck. Has a chronic condition, recently got a little worse, but nothing emergent. NO insurance, followed by an orthopedic surgeon. Told her to go to her ortho and have it arranged. “ I don’t have the money so I came here”. People thing everything we do in the ER is free, and an entitlement. I am sick of seeing people who are demanding, want care, free medicine, a meal, and a damn cab ride home, treat the staff like their servants and don’t pay us a fricking penny. The sick part is the idiot hospital caters to it, terrified it’s “patient satisfaction” numbers will suffer if we don’t provide it all. Thank God I am at the tail end of my career, and knock on wood I have an escape hatch for the next two years....
I feel for you and the other physicians who are having their careers ruined by this law.
Some years ago my grand nephew was intent on becoming a doctor, but because his finely-tuned political antennae told him that there was a good chance that we would have socialized medicine in the near future, he changed his mind and became an engineer instead.