Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Probably because of an old concept called "modesty". I know, right?
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Why doctors are sick of their profession
71–80 of 249 posts
Re: Why doctors are sick of their profession
#72Non-US anaesthesiologist here. I love my job and relish going to work each morning. I spend almost no time on non-clinical paperwork. I work reasonable hours, have some busy on-call shifts but am generally well supported by my department. I earn good money in the state system - enough to raise a family comfortably and have a nice house, but not silly money. I pay no malpractice insurance, but pay $400 annually to a n…
The actual experience in the US has been that healthcare functioned best when it was closest to a free market, and the more we socialize it, the worse it gets. (We have been slowly socializing it for many decades through regulation.) You can argue that we haven't been socializing it "properly," but the way we are doing it is just the way government works in the US, and that's not going to change. In general, we don't…
So we can't but Canada can?
As straining-of-credulity as such a bumper-sticker is, isn't that the logical conclusion?
Very Serious People ( with whom I happen to agree) actually say such things in "Fragile By Design". Calomiris/Haber are good writers and good thinkers. They do not call out medical nor political leadership there, but it's not exactly a stretch.
It's a short drop from this to the view of America from "V for Vendetta".
Re: Why doctors are sick of their profession
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
In US you have socialized the costs. Not the healthcare system. I think the only social type of medicine in US is the VA (they have the purse, their own hospitals and staff IIRC) and last time I read their costs of delivered product were much lower that the US average.
Socialized some of the costs. Some systems in the US, especially Kaiser, are basically a socialized system supported by premiums, and seem to work pretty well.
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Re: Why doctors are sick of their profession
#74You can definitely feel this as a patient. If I could give my vitals to an app and have it diagnose and prescribe remedies, I would do it in a heart beat and never visit a doctor again (of course you would need robot surgeons too :). I've never seen a doctor research anything either (although I'm sure they do behind the scenes). They seem to be pulling from whatever information cache they have in their head which I o…
I've never seen a doctor research anything either (although I'm sure they do behind the scenes).
Yup, they do it behind the scenes. They worry that too many patients would complain and feel insecure about a doctor having to do research in front of them, since the majority of patients want to feel that their doctor is the expert on all matters of their health. If a patient feels the care he/she wasn't up to par, and there are any complications, there is generally a very high risk of a lawsuit. So to prevent that, most doctors will do research outside of the view of the patient.
To be fair, they aren't sitting at their desks pulling up Wikipedia. Their research often consists of consulting with a specialist (or multiple specialists), consulting with colleagues, and searching through the volumes of medical periodicals and databases.
Most do this not just to be thorough and careful, but also because they know they need to practice defensive medicine and, well, cover their butts in case anything goes wrong.
Re: Why doctors are sick of their profession
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
The actual experience in the US has been that healthcare functioned best when it was closest to a free market, and the more we socialize it, the worse it gets. (We have been slowly socializing it for many decades through regulation.) You can argue that we haven't been socializing it "properly," but the way we are doing it is just the way government works in the US, and that's not going to change. In general, we don't…
So we can't but Canada can? As straining-of-credulity as such a bumper-sticker is, isn't that the logical conclusion? Very Serious People ( with whom I happen to agree) actually say such things in "Fragile By Design". Calomiris/Haber are good writers and good thinkers. They do not call out medical nor political leadership there, but it's not exactly a stretch. It's a short drop from this to the view of America from "…
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Re: Why doctors are sick of their profession
#76More work for less pay huh? Being squeezed by profit taking business people at the top... surely no one other than doctors can relate to such changes in the economy. *Edit I am of course being a bit sarcastic. It's interesting to see how shifts in the general economy are changing the medical profession.
You seem quick to blame the "profit taking business" aspect of this but what about the government regulation and interference in medicine that caused "medicine as big business" to be the only way many doctors could operate. A sole practicioner these days would drown in paperwork and regulatory overhead. Many see their only option as becoming employees of large health care corporations.
Maybe this tool works, maybe it doesn't.
We sort of have to develop the habit of classifying producer-surplus-gain ( what people make above the cost of goods and services ) into rents and profits, where profits are proportional to "consumer surplus". "Consumer surplus" is the difference between what you pay for something and your reserve price for it. If you'd pay five bucks but get it for three, you have consumer surplus of two bucks.
Then and only then can we have even a hope of coherent discussion about "profit making enterprises". But one man's rent is another man's profit; it's all pretty nuanced.
Re: Why doctors are sick of their profession
#77You can definitely feel this as a patient. If I could give my vitals to an app and have it diagnose and prescribe remedies, I would do it in a heart beat and never visit a doctor again (of course you would need robot surgeons too :). I've never seen a doctor research anything either (although I'm sure they do behind the scenes). They seem to be pulling from whatever information cache they have in their head which I o…
I wonder if in the future, doctors will become more like bearucracts. You go to the internet, find out what you have.
Then you fill out the appropriate form, go to a doctor who stamps the decision with a red mark of approval, granting you access to medication / surgery.
Re: Why doctors are sick of their profession
#78Re: Why doctors are sick of their profession
#79I think it's funny that the first picture in the article is of a doctor taking a patient's blood pressure. It's a little ironic because I've never actually had a doctor take my blood pressure (in the US). I'm not even sure if I've had a nurse do it, but more likely a physician's assistant or phlebotomist. Just like other industries medicine has been turned into an assembly line where patients are herded through the s…
I go to a doctor who always takes his own blood pressure readings. He also goes over every word that the nurse has charted, to make sure that he's not missing anything.
I have moved a few times, and I now happily make the two+ hour journey to see this doctor every time I need anything routine or that my major-city's doctor has a 2+ week waiting list.
This is in sharp contrast to last night, where my significant other visited the emergency room and the doctor came in and asked us why she weren't taking the medicine that our a doctor wrote for her on Wednesday. The kicker: she hadn't been to the doctor on Wednesday -- he completely screwed up everything, and then refused to see her again for the rest of the night, basically, making the OB/GYN nurse come down after surgery to talk to her and then the nurses.
My Small town doctor that I drive two+ hours for is much more amazing, happier, and gives me better care than my Cincinnati doctor. I can say the same about the dentists, and opticians that I've visited in Cincinnati as well.
Re: Why doctors are sick of their profession
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Probably because of an old concept called "modesty". I know, right?
He was not modest. He wrote the comment to say how much better his county medical system is. Except that he did not specified the country, so there is no way to verify his claim.
Many non US healthcare systems have bureaucracy or long hours too or both too.