Posted on 06/16/2008 11:20:42 PM PDT by neverdem
“I love being a doctor but I hate practicing medicine,” a friend, Saeed Siddiqui, told me recently. We were sitting in his office amid his many framed medical certificates and a poster of an illuminated lighthouse that read: “Success doesn’t come to you. You go to it.”
A doctor in his late 30s, he has been in practice for six years, mostly as a solo practitioner. But he told me he recently had decided to go into partnership with another cardiologist; his days, he said, will be “totally busy.”
“Your days aren’t busy enough already?” I asked.
The waiting room was packed. He had a full schedule of appointments, and after he was done with his office patients, he was going to round at two hospitals.
He smiled wanly. “Just look at my eyes.”
They were bloodshot.
“This whole week I haven’t slept more than about six hours a night.”
I asked when his work usually got done.
“It is never done,” he replied, shaking his head. “See this pile?”
He pointed to five large manila packages on a shelf above his desk. “These are reports I still have to finish.”
As a physician, I could empathize. I too often feel overwhelmed with paperwork. But my friend’s discontent seemed to run much deeper than that. Unfortunately, he is not alone. I have been hearing physician colleagues voice a level of dissatisfaction with medical practice that is alarming.
In a survey last year of nearly 2,400 physicians conducted by a physician recruiting firm, locumtenens.com, 3 percent said they were not frustrated by nonclinical aspects of medicine. The level of frustration has increased with nearly every survey.
“It will take real structural change in the work environment for physician satisfaction to improve,” Dr. Mark Linzer, an internist at the University of Wisconsin...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That’s what happens when you get government between patient and doctor...
“The waiting room was packed. He had a full schedule of appointments, and after he was done with his office patients, he was going to round at two hospitals.
“This whole week I haven’t slept more than about six hours a night.”
I asked when his work usually got done.
“It is never done,” he replied, shaking his head. “See this pile?”
He pointed to five large manila packages on a shelf above his desk. “These are reports I still have to finish.””
Without income your office can't stay open--it takes 50% or more of gross. Without hefty malpractice insurance you get no privileges at the hospital.
We already have socialized medcine in the US, thanks to medicaid/medicare/forced treatement of indigents. Insurance cos and scumbag ambulance chasing lawyers add to it.
What a mess. But our politicos aka the Ruling Class get the best (e.g. Sen. Kennedy’s treatment). They breaking point is close, and God help the scum who brought us here, because me and mine and most of like mind (e.g., freepers and lizards) won’t.
It is, but it boils down to one thing...physicians spending higher and higher proportions of their time filling in paperwork that PROVES they are doing a good job, as opposed to actually DOING a good job by healing patients.
It is indeed tough. The other day I was walking into a liquor store, and saw my GP standing outside the door, panhandling for loose change.
Don’t be surprised.
Yup. As far as this statement goes: “I’ve talked to quite a few doctors who are considering going to cash only clinics. We’ll see if that continues to be the trend.” Of course it will, that is until the libs ban that type of practice. The political elites will still get the best treatment, but us private citizens will get squat. The irony is that such a system will degrade the entire health care industry to the point that there won’t be the skill set taught to provide even the political elites with top notch care, but we will be screwed well before they feel the pain. That is, unless we reverse the trend. I believe that such will take a minor revolution akin to what happened in the US post Pealr Harbor. However, that is exactly what is coming. An Obama win will speed it by making things even worse sooner, but it is looking inevitable in any case.
(What, haven’t heard about the post Pearl Harbor situation that I am referencing? No surprise there. The libscum dominated “education” system has buried the facts of what happened. Talk to someone who went through it as a kid if you can find them. The Geatest Generation rejected libdolts wholesale - including by shunning and even lynching them - and that is why we became the power that we are.)
Eventually, Atlas will shrug, either from self defense or from exhaustion.
The laws are written by lawyers for lawyers...
I smell government in there somewhere.
I am one of those cash paying patients. that type of practice is essentially banned already. It takes a lot of work to find a doctor that will take on a cash patient. Most won't touch you because it violates some contract between them and the insurance company. Physicians in private practice may see you, but if they are in partnership(s), most won't.
And this all plays into the lib system. I think I wrote here back in Feb. about fearing I was having the early warning signs of a heart attack. Went to my 'private practice' doctor to get checked out. Was properly diagnosed as nothing nearly that serious, paid cash, followed doctors orders and have been fine.
Except for one thing...one of the girls tried to submit a claim to an old insurance of record. Of course I received a copy of denial of the claim, which should have never been filed, I paid cash at time of service. There was nothing due when I walked out of the office. When I inquired as to why they would try to file a claim...they "had to report it" to someone for their insurance record! Even though I walked in, paid cash, and am self-insured my visit to the doctor was still not private.
I smell politics generally. Health, like Education, is now a political football. Everyone is desperate to prove that these essential services are safe in their hands, and so there is enormous pressure to perform. Now, it is much easier to produce statistics than results. Much easier to “adjust” passrates than teach students well, yet to casual observation it looks just as good.
Form over substance my friend, form over substance. That is the mantra of the modern world.
Exactly.
This infuriates me.
Doctors help people. Directly. They have reduced suffering to me and those I love when we were ill.
The fact that lawyers suck at the trough so they can live in a McMansion and buy a Hummer every 2 years is an outrage.
Count me among those that have never heard. Unfortunately, I'm short on people who went through it as kids. Can you point me to a resource or reference?
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