{"id":38093,"date":"2013-06-27T23:32:59","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T03:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=38093"},"modified":"2013-06-27T23:36:52","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T03:36:52","slug":"the-modern-robber-barons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2013\/06\/27\/the-modern-robber-barons\/","title":{"rendered":"the modern robber barons…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My neighbor’s wife called late morning. She had a developed a severe right-flank intercostal pain that felt like a knife. It sounded like Shingles, but there was no rash. I gave her two left-over pain pills from her last dental surgery, and planned a later visit to see the rash that I expected to come soon and start Zovrax [an antiviral]. The pills helped, but when I showed up later, they were gone. I guess she got worried. I found her in the ER where she’d had a blood count, urinalysis, Chest X-Ray, and an EKG but hadn’t seen a doctor<\/font><\/strong>. In a while, he came in and when she rolled over, there was the Shingles rash. She went home with some pain pills and Zovrax.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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A friend called on the way home from an overnight speaking engagement. The day before, he’d developed right sided lower abdominal pain, nausea, and anorexia. Later he had fever and vomited and the pain became diffuse, then disappeared. He struggled through his talk, went to the motel and slept for ten hours. Malaise and fever persisted and he headed home. I thought he’d ruptured an appendix and told him to head straight for the Emergency Room. While all agreed with the diagnosis, he had both a CAT Scan and MRI "to find it" before surgery later that night. He had a ruptured appendix.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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They called late at night. Their son, a binge drinker, had called after a ten day bender and was "soused," begging for a drink. He was indeed a mess, but his vital signs were stable and he wasn’t dehydrated. I sent his Dad to an all night pharmacy for Librium which settled him down and he was fine in a day or two. Later I learned that there had been a previous episode 6 months before. They took him to the Emergency Room and left with a $10,000.00 bill.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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A neighbor called with acute right-sided back pain radiating to the groin. When I got there she was writhing in pain and said, "I think it’s a kidney stone!." She had percussion tenderness over the right kidney. She’d never passed a stone, but they’d been seen on a contrast X-Ray previously when she had a kidney infection. Off to the medicine cabinet for the left-over pain pills. She’s a single woman and I was leaving for a trip early the next morning so off we went to the Emergency Room. After she was admitted there and another friend came, I went home to finish packing. When I came back, her urine had blood in it as expected. She had an IV, chest X-Ray, an abdominal X-Ray, lab work, a CAT Scan, and was scheduled for a contrast X-Ray [IVP] if they didn’t see the stone on the CAT Scan. Meanwhile she went to the bathroom and passed the stone. Cost? $7,700.00… <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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My 79  y\/o friend has had periodic "dizzy spells" for several years, increasing in intensity. He’d seen every kind of doctor in the book in Atlanta.. Although he’d had every test possible, was never hospitalized. The cause wasn’t apparent. After a severe and persistent bout, I was determined to get him hospitalized and had his Internist arrange for a Neurologist the meet us at an Atlanta hospital. But that was not to be, because we couldn’t get him to my Jeep – too dizzy – so we called an ambulance which took him to the local hospital where he had a blood count, X-Ray, CAT Scan, and a particularly rude ER Doctor. By the time that was over, he had zero interest in heading to Atlanta. A week or so later, his wife drove him four hours north where he was admitted to Vanderbilt Hospital and had a thorough work up, was transferred to a research unit, and they made a definitive diagnosis [Primary Dysautonomia].<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
There are more such stories, but that’s enough to make the point. If it’s not apparent, most of those tests were unnecessary. Expensive tests before seeing the doctor? CAT Scans and MRIs galore in an ER with no diagnostic or treatment goal? It’s fee churning, and it happens every single time I get near that ER. I wrote<\/a> yesterday: "If you’re an old retired doctor in a community, the phone rings a lot and you end up going to the Emergency Room with a lot of people. I don’t like what I see there.<\/em>" This is what I was talking about. So today, I run into this post on Dr. Poses’ blog, Healthcare Renewal<\/font><\/strong>. I’ve only included the beginning and end of this important article. It’s the "why" of the "what" I posted above, and he suggests the only<\/font><\/strong><\/em> solution: <\/div>\n
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Shut Up and Sell – the Corporate Physician’s New Motto?<\/a><\/div>\n
Healthcare Renewal<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n
by Dr. Roy Poses
June 26, 2013 <\/div>\n

Evidence has been seeping into public view about the extent physicians who sign up to take care of patients as corporate employees<\/a> give up their professionalism.<\/p>\n

Shut Up…<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

In April, 2013, Medscape published an article<\/a> whose striking title was "Can You Speak Out Without Getting Fired or Being Labeled a Troublemaker?<\/em>"  The answer was basically "no."<\/div>\n