Replies

re: Otherwise, I plan to hang in another 10 years or so until retirement (somewhat early))))

What people here don't realize is that this in itself is horrible--there's nothing better than a seasoned doc with decades of experience.

Remember when Old Doc would cut back gradually on his practice well into his seventies, his patients getting old along with him, and was a resource for all the younger docs in town? Now docs squirrel away every cent to retire early and remove all that experience from the system .

And ask these docs if they like taking care of patients, they almost always say that they love the practice of medicine. It's all the stuff that comes with it now that they can't stand.

One of the most outrageous things about this is that the media constantly fans the flames of resentment toward doctors for making a decent living.

Some of you may know of news anchor Bill Bonds of Detroit. I don’t know he could do this with any conscience, but he once complained that some heart surgeons made as much as a million dollars a year (saving lives!). All the while, he made millions per year reading then news from a teleprompter! What’s the difference in the required skill level here, Bill? How arrogant and self centered can you be?

And ask these docs if they like taking care of patients, they almost always say that they love the practice of medicine. It’s all the stuff that comes with it now that they can’t stand.

You nailed it!

Remember when Old Doc would cut back gradually on his practice well into his seventies, his patients getting old along with him, and was a resource for all the younger docs in town? Now docs squirrel away every cent to retire early and remove all that experience from the system.

It's like that in a lot of professions these days. Experience is walking out the door. I can't speak for the medical profession, but in the electric utility industry, jobs that normally went to seasoned veterans looking towards retirement are now going to new engineering grads. And the system is trying to replace experience with written procedures. It's not working, but the solution from the top is to write more procedures, somehow expecting different results.

I don't know a great deal about the medical profession, but from conversations with a couple of nurses I know, a good deal of their time is now eaten up with paperwork instead of caring for patients. It's understood that in this profession, things have to be documented, but they tell me that there are a number of government-mandated logging procedures that now exist and must be followed.