Posted on 09/27/2017 4:42:59 AM PDT by NH Red
An 85-year-old New London physician said Monday that she has been forced to surrender her medical license because of a system that values electronic medicine over professional judgment, and favors expensive specialists over individualized care.
The Board of Medicine announced Monday that Dr. Anna M. Konopka, a solo practitioner family doctor, had agreed two weeks ago to voluntarily surrender her license in light of an investigation into her record-keeping, prescribing practices and medical decision-making.
Konopka, who must stop seeing patients on Oct. 13, said the issue is a system that has grown too computerized and cut-throat. She has been under attack for four years, she said; she believes New London Hospital wants her patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at unionleader.com ...
That is folking outrageous
Maybe they will afford DiFi and others in the Senate the same sort of treatment (would not hold my breath for that though, lol).
Move too ‘America’, Doc. You’ll be appreciated.
I am sympathetic to this physician, because electronic medical records are geared for the most part towards large hospitals, and as such are very expensive and complicated. But regulations have made it nearly impossible to comply with them without the help of computerized systems.
Sigh.
OTOH, I love a good story about a physician working in their mid-eighties, but the reality is...that is almost always far, far past the point where most can give appropriate care. Not in all cases, but in most of them.
I know. I have worked with physician populations, and there are some who simply won’t retire. They enjoy what they do, or wouldn’t know what else to do with themselves, but their performance can become spotty. Not what you want with patient care.
I also don’t doubt the regional hospital systems want her patients, but...how many could she be seeing? If that is the case, some hospital bureaucrat has too much time on their hands.
Also, if regulators found discrepancies, I wouldn’t doubt it. Without some kind of EMR, in today’s medical environment, you would have to be some kind of exceptional genius to not run afoul of the requirements.
I am sympathetic, though.
Saw an article recently that the faster growing job in the medical sector was medical transcriber, someone who sits there and fills in all the EMR/EHR cr@p so the nurses and docs can actually spend some face time with the patient. Why didn’t this doc have someone handle the electronic/computer BS for her?
Old Doctors should be respected. They still are here, but most of them are long dead.
Old family doctors and old hunting dogs, smile.
I don't know the legality of it all, but I was SO impressed with his messy, Norman Rockwellian office and down home demeanor, I had complete confidence in hime.
He treated all the usual childhood ailments (for about the two years we lived there) and a strep throat for me often with medications from a cabinet just like in those 1950's B movies.
I LOVED the guy.
I think you’re correct in your general assessment.
However, I know at least 2 doctors her age who are still fantastic - my uncle (yeah, biased, but he is still real spry and alert, as is his wife nurse who is always part of his team and is quite younger; he does intend to retire soon especially because of REGULATIONS), and my opthalmologist. (I LOVE this eye doctor; he’s my favorite doctor ever and I’ve had him 30 years; I fear his retirement.)
Anyway, she could be one of those types. But either way, we must be wary also of sudden changes in health for the old doctor. Some of us suddenly go downhill, while others are more obviously getting worse but gradually.
money. this ole gal was not really charging enough to pay staff.
Then find someone willing to do the same, sorta pro bono. A retired nurse, doc.
I’m no business person, but couldn’t the doc do the not for profit thing? Seems a real shame not to have her practicing.
To extend your observation further, another challenge with older doctors is that doctors in general tend to ossify once they’re out of medical school. Their knowledge of diseases, medical techniques, and treatments gets out of date, and sometimes is superseded by new research that reverses earlier teachings.
A good example I can cite is an ophthalmologist I visited years ago. He had to have been well into his seventies. He worked with me for a good 45 minutes on the mechanical phoropter, and I ended up with the best set of prescription glasses I’ve ever had: a corrected vision of 20/15 or better. But he had none of the new technology just coming out, and I wouldn’t have necessarily trusted him to be able to diagnose most of the conditions that newer doctors can now detect.
when my daughter was just a babe I took her in for some real or imagined concern and the old pediatrician said she’s fine. Later that night some young jerk doc who had reviewed all the records from the day made me take her to the hospital. I should have said the hell you say, but I didn’t want to rupture the ped-patient relationship so I took her. When I got there the emergency room was all excited and worried that a baby with pneumonia was coming in. I said well that’s news to me. It was folking ridiculous. When my own ped got back from out of town I said we want to go home. Bottom line, the old ped was right, there was nothing wrong, the new ped was on a power trip and my ped never should go anywhere haha.
Transcriber is probably a job without much future - technology is taking over. Menu driven input; first capture, and voice recognition are going to eat into that job description. And any time freed up won't mean more face time with the patient. It will just mean more bodies on the assembly line.
I’m not sure about the voice thing. Too many chances for misspellings, for example. I can’t tell you how many medical professionals I’ve encountered who can’t correctly pronounce generic drugs, for example.
I highly respect the old doctors I work with, but I also hope they can decide correctly when it is time to retire. Most do, because it is an extremely stressful profession.
But, for some, it is their life. All of it. Sad, in a way, but...hey, it is their life, and if that is what works for them, I have no opinion on that.
On the funny side, I had a liver specialist who I saw for many years, and he was approaching eighty when he retired. He was a grand looking old guy, too...huge shock of white hair, great big, bushy white eyebrows, seamed face. If you put him in a lineup and asked a bunch of people to pick out a country doctor, he is the one they would pick. In manner, he reminded me very much of Star Trek’s Dr. McCoy...:) Very, very down to earth, and very conscientious and meticulous. When I would go in, normally he would barely acknowledge me initially, much more than an curt “Good morning...have a seat.”
As I sat and watched, he would pore over my chart which was open in front of him (in the days they had charts). He was completely absorbed, making notes, turning pages, making more notes, turning back pages, then he would look up, take off his glasses and ask me how things were.
One day I went in, and he seemed even more curt than normal. He was almost grumbling and muttering. When he asked me how I was, I asked him how he was, because he seemed out of sorts. He said in an extremely irritated and gruff voice: “I was walking in through the hallway today, and they have my portrait hung on the wall downstairs. I guess that means I am going to DIE soon.”
At the hospital, they hang portraits of the physicians who have worked at the hospital long enough to merit it when they retire...or when they die unexpectedly! I thought it was hilarious...:)
I liked him a lot.
I am approaching retirement age in a few years, and there is no doubt I am ossifying. Damn. They sent me to some high end classes to learn how to write SQL queries last year, and...I just couldn’t get my head around it. It was one of the worst educational experiences of my life. I am not clueless about these things, but I found my brain just doesn’t absorb things in the same way it used to.
I respect someone who gets older and can still do that.
The moral of THAT story:
“Older is not necessarily Worse, and Younger is not necessarily Better.”
I am with you on that. I love the picture you painted there! (no pun intended)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.