[HSF] double negatives

[Michael Firstenberg]

The short answer is that we are easy targets.  We keep taking it on the chin
and coming back for more.  Everyone complains that we make too much money
and yet (at least in the US and probably everywhere else) they want instant
access to top doctors, top health care, top everything 24 hrs a day.  Here,
in the US - July 4th - national holiday, took me an hour to drive to work
(usually 15 minutes) to meet with a family about an upcoming operation - at
their convenience.  Try calling your lawyer today (even if it is a crisis)
or your stock broken, insurance agent, real estate agent, plumber, etc.
Sure, you may get ahold of them (at their vacation homes, on the golf
course, trout fishing) - but just wait for the bill for that 15 minute phone
conversation.  Besides, they dont even have to pay for their health care -
again, people do not appreciate or even understand the value of the services
that they require/want.  Then, on the other side we work our butts off and a
fluke accident happens or something out of the ordinary (so what if the
patient is a non-compliant overweight poorly controlled diabetic smoker) and
everyone wants to place blame.  Now CMS (medicare/Medicaid) is publishing
AMI/CHF 30 mortality statistics, patient satisfaction results, and I guess
the latest is that patients must sign a form agreeing 2 days in advance to
getting discharged - and if they disagree then it goes to a unbiased
moderator (hmm - who is going to pay for that???)  We take a stand on
something and we get marked for abandoning our patients, our hospitals, or
oaths.  And, yet here on this National Holiday - just try to get ahold of an
administrator or supervisor if you have a problem.  I am not complaining,
that is the way things are and that is why we chose this field.  My
patient's families hug and thank me for saving their loved ones in their
time of need - that I why I do this.  We are expected to be perfect - at
times I dont mind that reputation as I strive for it and families at times
recognize that is not the case when the see how hard we work and how much we
do care.  It sure beats the alternative - people expect their lawyers to
be...... (fill in the blanks).  If people are satisfied in life being
mediocre and having other expect that of them and expect to live and die by
a timecard/hourly rate/billable hours then fine.  I am looking to buy a new
condo to live and the developer "does not negotiate on price" - fine, when
he comes in the hospital and needs "my" services then he can pay full price
also.  OK, enough rambling.....We are not the bad guys in all of this - the
system is - yes there are bad, greedy, apathetic doctors (and probably a few
that can be classified as "terrorists") - but in the end, are we not all
passionate zealots - if not martyrs for our causes?


-michael


On 7/4/07, Tea Acuff <tacuff at swbell.net> wrote:
>
> Speaking of double negatives has anyone noted the sense of incredulity in
> the reports on the Muslim doctors in the UK who played a part in the
> terrorist attacks. This is from the same media sources that usually talk of
> our (as physicians) failures, negligence, and greed. The concept of killing
> healers is really a contradiction deep in the psyche of the West despite its
> mouth piece preference for jaded pseudo sophistication.
>
> tea
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