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HEALTH CARE

Doctor Burnout Threatening Patients

The problem is only going to get worse

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by PolitixMayday

Staff Writer t

"You are the bane of my existence." / Image: AP

A recent study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic found 46% of physicians are burned-out, affecting their ability to provide health care to patients. The problem is so acute it has driven some physicians to drink and even suicide.

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How can the US handle its doctor shortage?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • Real4WheelDrv
    !
    I'm sorry, but I've been recovering from knee surgery since March 31st, My most recent followup was last Thursday. I was told my appointment was at 12:45 pm, 12:45 I expect to be in that office talking to the doctor, instead I'm waiting till 1 pm to get in to the office because he's at lunch, then I had to wait 20 MORE minutes before he ever came in and he looked at my knee for 30 seconds and talked about the vacation he was going on the next day.

    My general care physician, even when diagnosing a NEW issue, keeps me waiting just as long and then sits down in front of a computer typing answers to questions. Burned out? Maybe if you work at an emergency clinic etc.

    In all fairness I gotta give the ortho doc credit because he is still agreeing to treat my knee even though he stopped accepting my medicaid HMO in July because they only pay him 33 cents on the dollar.
  • Real4WheelDrv
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    And just because I feel like causing trouble....take a look at the doctor and patient in that photo...and then read the caption. Awesome use of stealth racism!
  • u
    Ghaleon
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    i'm guess you never work the medical field and you have no clue what you are talking about. Well let me educate you on how the medical field work. 1. It is the medical assiasnt job to keep the flow of the office going the MA (Midical Assiasant) if the MA is behind so is the doctor. 2. Stuff happen in the middle office all the time if you recovering from knee surgery and you coming in for a check up you better belive if someone comes in with and real emergency that you are going to have to wait.
  • Real4WheelDrv
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    @Ghaleon This is a for profit orthopaedic surgeon in a small community in rural michigan, in a building that is literally yards away from a hospital AND a family practice, you have done nothing to refute my complaint.
  • u
    Ghaleon
    !
    @Real4WheelDrv I don't need to refute anything that you have said i simple pointed out facts. That a doctor does not run a medical office its the staff and the MA Job to keep the doctor moving. You cant blame a doctor for a weak staff. Nice try though.
  • o
    Stratton
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    The reason no one wants to become a doctor anymore is that medical school is too expensive and takes too long. The reason that no one wants to *remain* a doctor anymore is that malpractice insurance is too expensive because the law allows juries to award punitive damages far beyond any reasonable compensation.
  • Fishbone345
    !
    You are touching on it, but that isn't the only reasons.
    I can tell you with certainty Docs are sick of spending valuable time out of their lives treating patients that are uninsured. When you spend as much time with patients as our surgeons and turn around to be uncompensated, it takes a toll.
    Add to that they have to carry Malpractice Insurance policies that cost some as much as a 100,000 a year and you might begin to see why they are getting burned out and not recommending this profession to their own children.
  • u
    Lorth
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    I was under the impression the AMA was responsible for limiting the number of doctors and assisting in causing the shortage. Am I totally mistaken or can someone enlighten me?(this would be so much easier than me having to go research it)
  • myp
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    There are plenty of fully qualified doctors living and working in North America...as gas/convenience store owners, medical salesmen and lab technicians. Perhaps changing the immigration/work policies for MDs would make it easier and more likely for foreign doctors to enter the American workforce.
  • Real4WheelDrv
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    yeah, amazing how those people can get jobs and not be considered overqualified yet someone like me is. But bitterness aside, this has been an issue for decades, and I agree. It was even touched on in an episode of a 1990's sitcom. A young high school dropout was working as a security guard with an immigrant who was studying for college prep courses. "what did you do back home?" "I was an engineer" "why would you give up being an engineer to come here?" "my family wants the American dream" "but you were an engineer, now you're just a security guard" "True, but I still have the mind of an engineer, and soon America will know it too"
  • Bobolinsky
    !
    "How can the US handle its doctor shortage?"

    Step 1) Repeal Obamacare.

    Step 2) Replace Obamacare with reforms that remove the employer from the health insurance equation, scrap regulations that are barriers to competition and reform Medicare to allow for a "private option."

    Step 3) Tort Reform

    Step 4) Get government out of the student loan industry. Guaranteed government money is what's causing the Big Ed tuition bubble.
  • Bobolinsky
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    Once again Wilberhum, you have failed to read the article.

    "For example, John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis cites a Duke University study estimating that preventative tests and procedures covered by Obamacare would occupy 7.4 hours for every family physician's working day, leaving scarcely anytime for actual treatment."
  • u
    CommonSense
    !
    @Fishbone345
    The insurance industry causes the problem.
    Before health insurance was widespread health care prices were much lower. Insurance causes inflation.
    The government should cover people in cases where they can not afford to pay.
    And in all other cases people should pay for health care the same way they pay for all other goods and services, with their own money, not with insurance.
  • u
    CommonSense
    !
    Saving life should be the number one priority.
    If there aren't enough doctors the government should even if necessary set a separate minimum wage for doctors that is higher than the current average earnings that doctors make in order to raise incentives.
  • CanadianIndy
    !
    People are going to spout how we need to reform the healthcare system, or reform the education system, or give incentives to people who go into these professions. It's complete bollocks.

    Fund NASA to a fuller extent. Make something for kids to dream about again and you'll see the educational pipeline explode with higher-education-aimers. In the 60s and 70s under the Apollo missions, graduation rates in the United States /doubled/. That's across the board, everything from high school to masters degrees.
  • NormalFlora
    !
    Tort reform to eliminate "Defensive Medicine." Adopt the same compensation scale for injuries that the VA uses... Lifetime medical care for the injury plus a MAXIMUM of $2823.00 per month compensation payment for a 100% disability. Prohibit lawyers from claiming more than $100 per hour, plus LEGITIMATE research expenses, for their share of tort claims awards.
  • DerivePI
    !
    1. Loosen immigration for high degree workers (ex doctors - exclude lawyers).
    2. Allow insurance plans to exclude elective doctors visits.
    3. Loosen prescription drug definitions.
    4. Expand the role of nurses
    5. Pay doctors more.
  • u
    DrNickels
    !
    The problem is multifactorial.
    1. Insurance companies dictate the Reimbursement rates for physicians. They do this based upon what Medicare and Medicaid pay. The government pays poorly for care rendered under their programs and thus are able to artificially keep health care costs down in reimbursement rates, but then they continue to charge Medicare patients higher and higher premiums. Then you have Medicaid that the patients pay nothing for state of the art care so in order to stay in business a hospital or physician must charge more to private pay patients, the uninsured, or just ditch government healthcare plans altogether. So the insurance companies don't want to pay more for the same services that the government pays cheaper for. Why give the doctor a dollar if the government gives them .50?
    2. Abuse of Medicaid. Too many patients on Medicaid use their cards like it's carte Blanche free healthcare since they don't pay a dime for it. They go to the doctor for every ache and pain and expect hospitals to pay for things like dental work, Tylenol, etc rather than paying out of pocket for it. They go to the ER for the simplest ailments and then those excessive bills get eaten by the hospital who then to balance their budget charges you the insured or uninsured more for the same services.
    3. If obamacare stats law, then we will have to change our medical education system. Social healthcare works in other countries because 1. Everyone pays a hefty tax in sales tax to pay for the "free" care and 2. Doctors usually have 4 years of medical school and no undergrad. They are taught medicine quickly without all the fluff and they are turned loose with patients being their learning cases. I know this because I've worked with many foreign medical doctors who have come to the US and had to intern before they could be licensed in the US. Our medical education is one of the most rigorous in the world and that comes at a high price tag for doctors who begin that journey. The more we devalue and disrespect what physicians and care providers do the less they want to do their jobs and the less people desire to enter those fields.
  • Keyjo
    !
    Doctors in the United States make twice that of physicians in any other country.
    Insurance companies should be nationalized, non-profits (I'm talking ALL insurance, not just medical). Every American citizen deserves equal access to quality health care.
    Public education should extend to 16 years. Medical school should be an extension of pubic education for those who qualify, but they must be required to maintain above average grades.
    The capitalists have managed to drive the cost of living sky high, but along with that so goes the cost of insurance, medicine, education. It's a snowball rolling down an infinite hill.
  • mimi57
    !
    The average doctor here makes between 150,000 -200,000. That's not living the life of a millionaire, and they literally have the responsibility of life and death decisions. Most go into it to help heal people, it's not a career you choose to get rich from~ besides
    the student loans they have to repay are from 150,000 on up. I
    find it disheartening that so many people are so negative anymore they don't even have anything good to sat about doctors, who actually help save lives!
  • mimi57
    !
    Less lawyers who advertise non stop for anyone who has had anything
    at all go wrong and wants to file law suits in the millions. Most doctors are having a hard time paying outrageous medical malpractice insurance, especially OB/Gyn.'s , who have to pay double for both the mother and child if there is a problem. This country has become "sue" happy, but it's just one more way to get something for nothing, for all the
    legitimate cases there are 100 bogus law suits. Doctors are leaving, how sad, to spend all those years in education to do a job that heals
    and helps others, just to find you really can't afford it due to frivolous lawsuits. Urrrrrgh!
  • u
    soldier1980
    !
    To do no harm is the main criteria for being a doctor,have not been to many that fit that definition.Those that are in hospitals and clincs are ignorant,have time to slander an individual while on the clock.
  • BrotherMan
    !
    Once Obamacare is fully implemented and there are hundreds more patients for each Doctor, there is going to be many more Burnout case and the American healthcare system will become a piece of crap.