(Snippets from the frontline)
Character counts
People cheat and have no scruples. I’ve seen it in business and government. Worse, I’ve seen it in my own profession with doctors.
I find this reprehensible:
– Taking gifts from pharmaceutical companies to prescribe their drugs;
– discharging patients from hospitals too early;
– worrying about personal statistics instead of quality patient care;
– taking a bonus from an HMO as an incentive to provide less care;
– putting Medicare senior patients on hospice prematurely;
– backing cut-rate hospital administrators to obtain lucrative contracts; then
succumbing to provide inferior patient care because hospitals dangle those contracts;
– chumming up with hospital executives to eliminate outspoken whistleblowing doctors;
– not listening to their patient, giving time to their patient, or being an advocate for their
patient.
The list goes on.
Most doctors don’t cheat. But conversely there is a silent majority who have lost their voice because a student loan, new mortgage, kid’s college fund, or even overindulgence shackles them to apathy.
The Hippocratic Oath is only a hollow pledge for the once proud medical profession.
Character does count.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
“… no longer attracting the best because money is so limited and medical school is so expensive it takes a lifetime to pay back … the smartest go into business … all so sad.”
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Is practice better in other countries? In which countries and in which ways?
Ramius 10 on Twitter
Medical profession has been purposefully degraded to include so many others without MD degrees to qualify for insurance payments it’s ridiculous … add that to HMOs with 9-5 docs who just pass you off to the next checking in with no one overseeing or coordinating care … hospitalist does not really know the patient …so impersonal and cold … no referrals from friends to see someone in particular …instead one must see who is listed in the insurance book … insurance companies tend to hire whoever will work for the least amount of money reimbursement per patient … no longer attracting the best because money is so limited and medical school is so expensive it takes a lifetime to pay back … the smartest go into business … all so sad.
Hello!!!’ The public needs to be told of the things physician ‘s must do to be clearly honest despite continued bribes from the big wallet of medicine.