Physicians’ Thoughts On How They Are Being Treated

Here’s a recent running list of thoughts/complaints/opinions by physicians as found on Twitter. All are kept anonymous for obvious reasons.

Hospitals are obsessed with protocols and systemwide ‘standards’. Why? It allows them to extract physician knowledge, simplify it, and allow (cheaper) midlevels to take over.

“At my hospital, we’re encouraged to take “mental days off” as much as we need but in reality, HR counts each day off as an “occurrence”… in par with tardiness, negative interaction with patients, fighting with colleagues, damaging hospital property.”

“Fellow physicians: if you are afraid to lose your license or hospital privileges for asking questions or saying what you think, ask yourself: what has happened to our profession? And who do you serve?”

“So I’m the exiting chief of surgery at my hospital. My two years of stupid meetings, babysitting disruptive surgeons, managing Covid staffing issues, etc has culminated in receiving a $50 gift card. That’s how out of touch hospitals are.”

Stop making fun of older kids who still believe in Santa. There are hospital administrators who still believe that cookies, pizza, inspiring quotes & choosing happiness solves burnout & staffing problems.

Dispensable, costly services we cut/eliminate to stay in budget: -social work -psych liaisons -wound care. Welcome new Hosp Executives: Chief of Strategic Transformation, Chief Relationship Manager, Chief of Goals & Metrics, Chief of External Affairs, Chief of Wellness

You’ve heard of “hospital administrator shortages”, right? “Strategic cuts in admin” or “administrator retention pay”? Staffing agencies for “travel administrators”? Hmmm, me neither. We love our jobs & are well paid. What can I say? Cuts will never be made in the c-suite.

The shortages in hospital staffing are not exclusively due to an overwhelming number of sick . They are due to purposeful cuts in key staffing to ensure that there was no drop in the bottom line profitability. Hospital CEO bonus incentives are tied to their profits.

Remember early 2020 when hospital administrators threatened to reprimand healthcare workers who wanted to wear surgical masks because of the reports of Covid spreading across the world & eventually across the US & were told “not to scare patients?”