Posted on 08/18/2012 11:36:19 AM PDT by don-o
My wife of 32 years has been a general surgeon in private practice since 1985. She came up thought the Old Boys Network, when female surgeons were few. We went through graduate school and residency on the south side of Chicago for 5 years, giving up our young married life to a commitment to people. We lived in a one bedroom 800 square foot apartment behind Michael Reese Hospital, on 31st and King Drive, as minority white folks, sacrificing all for 80-120 hour workweeks (before PC got in the way and now the puss* surgical residents have limited hours).
In private practice, she works typically 12-14 hour days, 6 days per week. We had no government loans, supported ourselves, and have saved diligently and progressed. Now, Obama is trying to take it all away. Well, guess what? She will retire, in her last prime years, rather than become a clerk to the leftist entitlement mentality. We well remember the night Obama made those statements on national TV about greedy doctors. I cannot tell you all politely about my white-hot rage and hatred toward Obama and his wife. I so despise them that I cannot stand the sound of his lispy, lilting cadence, I cannot tolerate the sight of his sneering, awful arrogance, his ugly, awful fraud of a spouse.
I cannot tolerate “Americans’ who support Obama, and have cut ties to family and friends who do. I pray we here, the Tea Party, and thinking Americans can rid us of this plague, this malignancy, this utter fraud of Affirmative Action, from OUR White House.
32 posted on Saturday, August 18, 2012 11:48:24 AM by astounded (Barack Obama is a clear and present danger to the USA)
Ping.
He's referring to residency training. They've cut back on that now. Not sure it makes for any better of a surgeon. They get less experience and you want that experience in the OR in the middle of the night with trauma or an acute abdomen.
As a patient, I can only hope that not all good doctors show Obama they hate him by quitting the profession. I do not look forward to 3rd-rate doctors stepping into the void. Surely there is a way to use your training and expertise for the good of humanity. Maybe just treat conservatives?
It doesn’t leave us patients much, does it? ... to be darned if you’ll work under Obama’s rules?
As a patient, I can only hope that not all good doctors show Obama they hate him by quitting the profession. I do not look forward to 3rd-rate doctors stepping into the void. Surely there is a way to use your training and expertise for the good of humanity. Maybe just treat conservatives?
It doesn’t leave us patients much, does it? ... to be darned if you’ll work under Obama’s rules?
Nope, it is still kickin’ here on FR — an the insistence of the Boss...
After 32 years in practice, I left 6 weeks ago to retire at age 59. The partners I left behind have never been so discouraged by the future of medical care. We all worked in a health care “system” that bought into all the changes and is doing all in its power to assure compliance with everything the government spits out. In the process, they have set up a “corporate compliance” department that answers only to the board of directors comprised of a few physicians, health care administrators, and civilians. This department has become essentially a Gestapo and is run by a couple of attorneys who, I swear, must hate physicians. Now there is no room for anything for standardization of processes, excruciating compliance with government mandates, and “scorecards” rating physician performance. It’s enough to make you puke and the ethical decision making is strictly done on the basis of reimbursement for the organization.
ping
ping - I know you have had a lot of contact with the medical system recently. Interested in your comments, if you have any.
Sorry, the second to last sentence should have read, “Now there is no room for anything but standardization ...” not “for”.
If it were not for the intern, working those 80-120 hour work weeks, I would not be here today.
In 1989, I had a ruptured cyst on my ovary (didn’t know at the time). I knew something was wrong so I had my bf drop me off at the emergency room. The 1st doctor to examine me dismissed me as to having cramps.
The 2nd, an intern, working those 80 - 120 hour work weeks said the 1st doctor was wrong and gave 2 possible diagnosis. He then recommended a 2nd doctor. He KNEW it was something serious.
The 2nd doctor came in. If it were not for that intern, I would have been dismissed by the 1st doctor...to go home and die.
My ruptured cyst caused a tear on my ovary, which led to internal bleeding. The intern listened to my symptoms....the pain I started to feel all over my body (which was caused by the poison from the cyst entering my bloodstream...causing the pain).
If it were NOT for this intern, who TOLD ME the 1st doctor was wrong, I would have been sent home....to die of internal bleeding.
“I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years ago,” said Dr. Hendricks. “Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything — except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the ‘welfare’ of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only ‘to serve.’ That a man who’s willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind — yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands?” -Ayn Rand
That’s very interesting, thank you! I know my wife has patients constantly asking her what Obamacare will do to medicine. She has a lot of little old people she has been caring for, in some cases, over two decades. They are begging her not to retire, what will they do? You see, she still takes Medicare patients, but many younger practices don’t. And, if we don’t rid ourselves of Obama and repeal Obamacare, seniors will be out of luck. There will be months-long waits, Medicare payment to doctors and hospitals will be ratcheted down, and docs will not be able to take on new patients on Medicare and maintain their practices. This is a critical situation, the survival of American medicine - the best bar none in the world - depends on freeing the USA from Obama and the left.
I also think we are going to see off-shore medical boutiques — living in the carribian could be fun.
I find the ‘take the pill’ requirement interesting.
Have any of you out there tried to get any pain medication recently? I just had an accident, my personal physician wasn’t available, and I really needed some pain meds. LOL - it was unbelievable what I went through.
If people think they’re going to get real pain medication and get it easily they are wrong. The future looks very grim. I’m going to start stockpiling some meds in case Aunt Tillie gets denied them.
As a practicing physician, I feel your pain. The Federal government is leaning very hard on physicians, and those in their 50s and 60s will retire or substantially modify their practices. There are 3 major threats to physicians: rationing of care, reduced reimbursement, and increased regulation. The first two will drive physician practices into bankruptcy, and the last one could land doctors in prison.
Primary care docs will be the first to abandon government payers, and instead opt for boutique and cash pay practices which of course will reduce supply for those on Medicare, Medicaid and exchanges. Specialists will be forced to join hospital corporations, but they will have fewer incentives to be productive. Providers working for hospitals will realize that although they will be in high demand, the available pools of money will be limited. Unable to demand high salaries, providers will negotiate for better work conditions (fewer hours, more vacation), which means less access for patients.
How do countries with socialized medicine seem to make it work?
I ask because I have a friend of German heritage who throws that at me all the time and I confess to be somewhat at a loss of facts and figures.
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