Do Hospitals Want to Replace Doctors?

If you ask any Hospital CEO if he or she wants to replace doctors then what do you think they would say? 

“Of course not!”

But that may not be the truth. 

We definitely have a disconnect between hospitals and employed physicians. 

EVERY doctor who I have ever interviewed has felt that their administration wants to replace them. How devaluing is that? They feel it is a financial move that if the hospital can get away with it then they will. Whether it is PAs, NPs, AI, or monkeys with smart handlers, doctors believe their time is running out. Physicians believe that if administrators can conjure up enough evidence to justify that the monkeys do as well as doctors then they would start importing bananas by the truckload. 

So, where does that leave us? Well, for someone like me, who believes that hospitals would love to find ways to retain their good doctors, I may be out of luck. It is quite possible that hospital administrators really don’t care about this and that is why 9 out of 10 of them HATE my book. Maybe my book sucks? That is in the eye of the beholder because it only gets high praise by employed doctors. 

I don’t know the answer. I only know that if hospitals and their administrators believe doctors can be replaced by anyone else then a doctor then they are sorely mistaken. Time will tell. As more and more lawsuits arise due to poor care and malpractice delivered the nondoctors, I think you will see a change. This is especially true when the hospital itself is being sued for making the decision not to use doctors. And there are case precedents for this. 

I highly recommend that administrators keep the following in mind:

1. Doctors know you are trying to replace them so don’t try and BS them by saying that you aren’t.
2. Doctors cannot be replaced.
3. You, as a hospital, will be the focus of malpractice lawsuits for poor care by nondoctors. 
4. You need to see 5 years down the line when hospitals will again be clamoring to recruit or retain their doctors and realize doing this now will only benefit you. 

I know there will be disagreements to what I just wrote. Bring it on.