Re: Legal system defining...long
From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)
Sun Apr 22 13:26:13 2001
Amen Joe -
the paradigm has changed from publish or perish to produce or perish.
and so it goes ...
art
At Sun, 22 Apr 2001, DoctorJoe@aol.com wrote:
>
>In a message dated 4/22/01 11:18:13 AM, kdew@bellsouth.net writes:
>
><< Many, not all, of the docs who are schooled in countries with "socialized
>
>medicine" in it's many forms have a significant, if not complete, subsidy of
>
>their medical education. We, in the USofA, unless on military or public
>
>health service scholarship, pay for it out of pocket, often graduating with
>
>debts far in excess of $100,000, at 7% to 10% or more interest, none of
>
>which is a tax deductible expense once we begin to make money. Forgive us
>
>please if we wish to pay these debts and have a decent lifestyle. >>
>
>True...
>
>In the "good old days", it was a matter of "If you build it, they will come."
>You put yourself through med school and internship and maybe residency, hung
>out a shingle, and you had business and respect and a comfy life (after being
>in virtual prison during school and training -- some places, remember, didn't
>allow you to be married, leave the hospital for days, etc, etc). So what was
>wrong with being "rich" later anyway -- you put in a hell of a lot of dues...
>Medicine was a PROFESSION and you were a PROFESSIONAL.
>
>NOW, however, there is competition for patients (no guaranteed money), lots
>of debt to pay off (more expensive schools, family to support DURING school,
>etc, etc), no respect (e.g. plaintiff's lawyer, no-pay patient, etc) -- all
>of which lead to POVERTY if you don't fight like hell as a BUSINESS to keep
>your head above water. So what happens? You become the "provider" and they
>become the "consumer" and THAT'S where we are now...
>
>Joe P.
>
>P.S. Even in Academia, the chairmen are ripping up departments trying to run
>them as businesses (how many academics are getting MBAs now?), keeping the
>bottom line black and high, rather than concentrating on the traditional and
>still paramount big three: research, teaching, service. Now it's work, bill,
>collect, send to collection agency, work some more (Oh, Dr. Smith, that's
>nice that you wrote a paper. Does that generate any money I can use for the
>department? No, I can't pay for you to present it at the meeting in Chicago.
>You can take vacation and pay for it yourself and be sure to put our
>institutional name all over it, so we get credit...).
>
>Nuff said, True Believers.
--
art fougner, md
A series of 1000 cases begins with but a single anecdote.
