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The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

niskanencenter.org

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Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#91

Post by greiskul »

lostlogin wrote: post #83
whimsicalism wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes no sense, if the capital is expensive then you should hire more labor.

That is literally what I'm saying. Staff are worked harder as shifts are introduced. It is not a nice way to work. Sure, it helps reduce the number of patients, but it destroys work/life balance and that is what the OP was raising as an issue. It is also hard to get patients to agree to having tests done at 5am or 9pm, so it's a case of diminishing returns. The staff penal rates go up too, so the squeeze comes from a…

> It is also hard to get patients to agree to having tests done at 5am or 9pm, so it's a case of diminishing returns.

In the US? With health care prices as they are? There are people that travel to entirely other countries for access to health. I'm plenty sure lots wouldn't mind at all to have an exam at 9pm if it meant it was way cheaper.

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#92

Post by transcoderx »

bruce511 wrote: post #38
alehlopeh wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s with the scare quotes around communist? Sure they have a lot of doctors. And how many of those doctors are allowed to do business as a private practice? Or how many would be allowed to change careers if they wanted to? How many are allowed to spend their income at fancy places, where the currency they get paid in isn’t even accepted? Hate to break it to you, but “your” worldview is incredibly, laughably, misin…

Again, it's best not to align planning to political methodologies. Cuba has success stories. That isn't a vote for communism. Equally, another "communist" state (China) is doing very well and while there is a lot of planning there, there is also a lot of free-market. Again, not a vote for communism. I use communist in quotes here because Chinese communism is different to communism as practiced in the USSR. Just like…

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Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#93

Post by alar44 »

the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

[dead]

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#94

Post by matheusmoreira »

smarmgoblin wrote: post #75
the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

I dropped out of an MD/PhD program after I passed Step 1, it’s hard to articulate exactly how it felt staring down the barrel of a career in medicine but this is sort of what I feared. Since I’ve been in tech I’ve been laid off several times, and it’s not clear that compensation or demand will always be as hot as it is right now. I’m not complaining but if you take any satisfaction in actually helping people, there’s…

> it’s hard to articulate exactly how it felt staring down the barrel of a career in medicine

Yeah. I used to enjoy this blog, written by a person who hated US medical school:

https://web.archive.org/web/20101218031844/http://www.medsch...

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#95

Post by FredPret »

the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

Just as an aside, I imagine there would be cool medical device startups working on smart glasses / artificial eyes.

They probably wouldn’t even advertise for an ophthalmologist/ CS / Math person, because I think there’s probably only the one of you!

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#96

Post by the_d3f4ult »

merek wrote: post #86
the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

Thanks for sharing. A couple of questions if I may: For a typical surgeon in the US, how common are lawsuits from patients? Do you have plans to run your own clinic (if not already doing so)? If so, would this address some of your current issues (work hours, compensation) at the risk of having to operate your own business?

> For a typical surgeon in the US, how common are lawsuits from patients?

Not very common. Pretty much everyone gets sued at some point in their career, but it's rare to break through the malpractice insurance ceiling. That said, it's always in the back of your mind and when it happens it messes with you psychologically.

>Do you have plans to run your own clinic (if not already doing so)? If so, >would this address some of your current issues (work hours, compensation) at the >risk of having to operate your own business?

It's complicated. While being your own boss has a lot of perks, the path to ownership is not straightforward anymore in the current era of private equity. Some of the things that suck are not related to the financial aspects.

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#97

Post by matheusmoreira »

xvedejas wrote: post #72
the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

The biggest complaint I always hear from people in the medical field is the long hours. It sure sounds to me like that (and thus any knock-on problems) could be solved by more practitioners, spreading the work around. I can't speak for you, but personally, a proper work-life balance in comparison to these horror stories is surely worth a possible salary cut?

> more practitioners

His other complaint was about the stagnant wages. More doctors will only compound that problem.

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#98

Post by epicureanideal »

the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

> Physician salaries are the only ones that do not grow relative to inflation

Same has been happening to software engineers for the last 10 years at least. Salaries go up but not as fast as inflation.

I’ve gotten higher titles and more responsibility over the years but inflation is still winning compared to 5+ years ago.

> That said, is anyone hiring an ophthalmologist with CS and Math degrees?

As soon as the job market recovers I think you’ll have no problem finding a job in software.

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#100

Post by lostlogin »

greiskul wrote: post #91
lostlogin wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is literally what I'm saying. Staff are worked harder as shifts are introduced. It is not a nice way to work. Sure, it helps reduce the number of patients, but it destroys work/life balance and that is what the OP was raising as an issue. It is also hard to get patients to agree to having tests done at 5am or 9pm, so it's a case of diminishing returns. The staff penal rates go up too, so the squeeze comes from a…

> It is also hard to get patients to agree to having tests done at 5am or 9pm, so it's a case of diminishing returns. In the US? With health care prices as they are? There are people that travel to entirely other countries for access to health. I'm plenty sure lots wouldn't mind at all to have an exam at 9pm if it meant it was way cheaper.

New Zealand. The issue is that the reimbursement is the same whenever the scan is done, but staffing costs more at night (so scans kind of need to cost more at night).

Reading what an MRI costs in the US, I do wonder if a trip to NZ for the scan would actually be cheaper.

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