I kind of have a very low tolerance for anyone lecturing me on the duties of my Oath.
One commenter, going by the moniker of "Anna", had some spot-on observations about the lack of accountability in medicine . . . referencing the recent case of the Pediatric pedophile in Delaware to help make her point. It's also been my point for the last five years on this blog . . . that we cannot/will not have effective tort reform until medicine cleans up its act in the accountability department . . . until "the White Wall" comes down. I couldn't really argue with anything she said until she closed with this:
And don’t say “the public will never understand . . . ”. I believe you’ll find we do . . . . we’re not as dumb as you think.
Unfortunately, when it comes to what really needs to be "reformed" in healthcare, that has not been my experience . . . especially when it comes to the politicians making policy and the journalists reporting it. Indeed, I would not be in this blogosphere at all if the general public were savy and educated and well-informed enough to know what was wrong and how to fix it . . . for if the public were tuned in, my situation would have been fixed long ago.
I was trying to come up with a reply when another doctor, going by the anonymous moniker of "jrm", beat me to it:
Well, yes you are. You will never understand the rigors of medical training, which approach that of armed combat at times. You will never give up your twenties. You will never understand that learning the profession of medicine is not at all like graduate school. And you will never understand that, no matter how bright you think you may be, no matter how expert you may be in your own field, you can never approach the knowledge and clinical judgment of even the average physician.
And yet you spit upon us, condescendingly acknowledging that the alledged Delaware abuser is "not representative of the majority of providers." You damn us with this faint praise, knowing full well that such incidents represent only a miniscule minority of physicians.
Physicians demonstrate more personal responsibility for less compensation in a single day than most people do in an entire lifetime. If you don't believe it, imagine what it would be like to do without us for a month or two. Be careful what you wish for . . . you might get it.
Shortly thereafter, "Doc99", chimed in with more keen insight:
Medical School selected out specific personalities willing to swallow anything . . . voluminous texts, extensive memorization, browbeating professors, etc . . . so they could get that degree. Those very personality traits that enabled survival in med school now have doomed doctors to put up with things like Medicare’s declining payments, HMO denials, Prior Approvals, Audits, etc.We have met the enemy and they is us.
Yep. Add greedy/corrupt unconvicted felons in suits and that about covers it.
