The battle to care – Sunrise Rounds

The battle to care – Sunrise Rounds | Sunrise Rounds

Doctors have become a profession of whiners.  Meetings, dinners, doctor’s lounge and blogosphere are flooded with physician complaint, tirade and anger.

It was not always so.  Medicine is a career where idealism runs rampant.  In medical school interviews young students really do answer that they want to help their fellow man.  Nonetheless, in recent years that has changed.

doctors harangue about insurance company dominance, the intrusion of dehumanizing electronic records, ridged evidence-based-venn-diagram treatment regulations, lost autonomy, malpractice assault and of course plummeting reimbursement.

These are all valid complaints about bureaucratic changes imposed on our healthcare  that has a detrimental effect on patient care.

Physicians are accused of making income their primary drive, with overblown salaries and even fraudulent billing.

Should we hear their frantic words as bombastic, hubristic self-preservation, or is it a warning?  Whom are they trying to protect?  What are they trying to achieve?

what frightens doctors the most is transition that destroys their ability to care and give care.

Doctors defend not themselves.  They perceive that the litany of assault is not just annoying, insulting, confusing and at times ridiculous, but a direct attack on patients.

Physicians rant not for treasure or personal glory, but for those who entrust their bodies to the medical profession.