thethrilloftime69

None of this makes any sense to me

Yeah I’m super lucky I don’t work for MBAs all my bosses are doctors and they don’t like to step on my toes. So I have a lot of leeway to do things like I see fit.

No. Each doctor/practice has their own policies about how many patients need to be seen in order to optimize revenue. Insurers have policies about what needs to be documented before they’ll agree to pay for certain tests or agree to pay for additional visits.

We’re trained in residency to try to fit a whole visit into 15 mins. So a lot of systems will force you to see 4-8 patients in an hour. I’m lucky that I work for a small non profit hospital, so we don’t have any policies about how many patients need to be seen in order to optimize revenue, but a lot of my colleagues will be forced into seeing 40-60 patients in a day in order to maximize the number of billable visits.

Basically MBAs forced all these decisions on us.

I’m a doctor. And I know people rightfully don’t trust us and I know that people are justifiably angry at the US healthcare system.

But every time I’m with a patient, I sit down for as long as is necessary. I will run late if I have to because I know that I might be the only opportunity this person has to have someone listen to them( because God knows so many of my colleagues will not). I ask about their lives and I try to explain what I understand about their condition. I explain what the limits of modern medicine is and I try to point out where exactly the insurance company has chosen to insert themselves into the interaction. I never promise that I can fix everything but I try my hardest to listen to their concerns. I strongly believe in health education and I try to explain that medicine has limits about what it can find and what it can explain. Sometimes their problems fall into realm sometimes their problems do not fall into that realm. I know patients will sometimes lie to manipulate me, but I don’t hold that against the next patient.

I volunteer at 2 free clinics because I strongly believe we need a universal healthcare system and I think it would make me a hypocrite if I didn’t at least try to donate some of my time.

I’m not the best doctor but I know I’m motivated by a deep sense of responsibility to humanity.

Well there are local governments. The federal government can’t exert it’s control by itself.

I was reading about the French Revolution yesterday and the thing that really got things started was mass starvation. Something like 90% of French citizens were actively starving.

There will need to be a singular suffering affecting 90+% of people before we’ll all take to the streets and put heads on pikes. I’m guessing climate change might get us there.