It's time for the American physician to stand up.
We will no longer bend to the tyranny of bureaucracy, the venom of litigation, or the naivete of legislation. For we have spent many a night sweating on the phone as our dear administrators slept comfortably in their beds stuffed with hundred dollar bills. Our experience standing in the line of fire dwarfs that of any attorney questioned by his client's peers. And we have tended to more constituents personally than any verbose and hyperbolic politician.
Yet the doom and gloom of our current healthcare system is being flung belligerently at our feet. The American physician is beaten, battered, and toiling in a cocoon of self hatred. Caught in a tangled web that binds, our detractors count on our sacred healing oath to imprison us in a system that becomes more constrictive by the day. We are too proud to stand down. We are too dedicated to our patients to bow as the chains are pulled tighter.
We have been judged by the outlying ice that melts at our extremes, and denied the strength of our inner core. We are solid. We are dependable.
You will legislate, you will regulate, you will under compensate. And we will nod our heads willingly.
But when you attack our pride, our character, you cross the line.
We have spent every waking moment since childhood planning for this. We have studied more hours than most can conceive, We have worked while others rested and than worked some more.
We have been placed in the most difficult of situations. We have had to question God regularly. We question ourselves.
We stand tall and proud as American Physicians.
We will not let you cast us as villains.
5 comments:
Your pointed, true comments & dedication, not only to your/our profession, but also to your patients in this volatile healthcare climate is an inspiration to me. Thanks for what you do!
As a patient, I wish I had doctors that felt as you do. One doctor of mine does no9t even do tests and it is 10 minutes and out the door. Forget about questions or anything bothering me. As a person over 70, this is more than a little disconcerting.
Dr. Grumet,
While you and others like you, have many fine qualities, the problems really are less people like you. Its those doctors who have ego and allow it to hurt others when they don't fix/correct their mistakes. Its doctors who allow others to work knowing they are a harm to the system. Its doctors who don't allow us patients to help out. I was patient who helped and I will pay for doing so with my life. I'm not a sue happy person. But when the medical profession uses the law, harassment, intimidation, our EHR's, buddies in the system, and state medical boards, to help out their own and not the patient when there truly was a mistake, that's where the problem lies. Even the regular people recognize that and its truly a major reason why we have the relationship we do. That and having docs who don't want us asking questions, etc. I've had so many good doctors, but its the bad ones who make the problems.
You know, the saddest thing: one of my doctors told me no one else gave him a Happy Doctors' Day card. He remembered that - and that was in March.
You have my "Amen!" on that!
Unless you have worked with interns and residents who go for days with very little sleep to become a doctor I think you do not have enough information to cast stones. They work harder than most of us could endure. They do not stop crazy schedules when they open a practice.
Can you imagine someone you have taken care of for years in critical condition. Relations are formed. I am not a doctor but have worked in hospitals and have seen first hand what I tell you about. A 9-5 does not exist in their worlds. Even when they go to church they wear a beeper.It is easy to sit on the sideline and tell them how to play the game.
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