Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Dear patient: I need your help to change the health care system

Ben Gonzalez, MD
Physician
May 5, 2016
Share
Tweet
Share

A response to “You signed up to be a doctor, not a martyr.”

Dear next patient,

I appreciate your letter and your advice. I would sincerely like to follow all your advice concerning exercise, eating right, and spending more time with family. I try to make every effort to do so. Unfortunately, I am in the middle of transitioning for the third time to a new EMR system and managing quality metrics and algorithms.

Also, our clinic just received a negative online Yelp review. Apparently the reviewer had to wait 30 minutes to be seen and wants everyone to avoid our clinic, so I need to deal with that. We just found out insurers have cut our reimbursements for the third time and though we have spent thousands of dollars to ensure compliance we are also being penalized for not complying with Center for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) initiatives. Though we are on our third EMR, we seem to have issues complying with “meaningful use.” Our transition to a cloud-based system was a bit of a struggle, and it has been down for awhile. Thank goodness we have written medical records to back up our EMR.

At great expense, we hired an administrator to help us comply with the new ICD-10 coding system to help us ensure proper reimbursements. Thank goodness for another administrator in our system. I try to keep up with the new changes in the health care system. However, since I need to work during the day to see patients the only time I have available to attend meetings, complete paperwork, listen to webinars, or read the policies and laws on these subjects is in the evenings and weekends. Thank goodness for the videos of my child.

I am glad you would like for my cheeks to see the sun on occasion, to be there emotionally and physically for my family, and not beat myself up when I make mistakes. However, you also expect me, the doctor, to be perfect. That is a conundrum. I would like to maximize who I am as a person. I really try to. I make every effort to eat well, walk as much as I can even if it is up and down the stairs of the hospital, and talk to my family when they need me. And honestly, it isn’t the pure demands of being a good doctor that gets in the way. It is the multiple requirements of the system, the rejection of insurance, the futile attempts to comply with EMRs, meaningful use and Physician Quality Reporting System and Angie’s List that demand my attention away from you, my patient. I am a physician in the most affluent country on the globe. A country which ranks #1 in health expenditure per capita and last place in health status among the world’s wealthiest countries.

When I reached out to my resources for advice on how to improve my lot, a Medscape report in January 2014 suggested I “provide care to prisoners, supervise PAs, serve as an expert witness ( I assume they mean against my colleagues), review health insurance claims (yes, I want more administrative paperwork), examine patients for insurers, work for a pharmaceutical company, staff medical tents at sporting events, work on a cruise ship (take my family while I work!),” and more suggestions along those such lines. Even more suggestions by Medscape in August 2014 recommended I open a medispa or an urgent care center, or dispense medications from my clinic to improve my lot. These are suggestions from my colleagues on one of the most read, physician-oriented websites.

Here is the real conundrum: You do not want to hear me complain about health care system issues, compliance requirements, or especially what we get paid. You just want me to get it done. And that is what I do. I get it done. So forgive my wrinkled scrubs when you walk into my ER with chest pain, the dark circles under my eyes when I am setting your son’s broken bone, and my growling stomach when I am reviewing your lab results going over each and every one of them with you.

Despite the high statistics of new and old physicians wanting out or wishing they had not become physicians in the first place, I love being a physician. With a real passion. Enough to do it knowing I have the highest suicide rate, divorce rate, and have likely cut a few years off my lifespan. I am no martyr. I am dedicated.

I need your help. If you have noticed, I have not said one thing about my years of schooling, my medical competency requirements, medical liability, the need to cater to attorneys, or my constant desire to better myself in my knowledge as a physician. I do not need your help with that. What I need is for you to change your habits to help prevent disease. I need your help to change the health care system. Do what it takes. I have a lot riding on you. You just signed up to be my patient.

Sincerely,

Your doctor

Ben Gonzalez is medical director, Atlantis Medical Wellness Center, Silver Spring, MD.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

#AskKevinMD Live! Episode 3

May 4, 2016 Kevin 0
…
Next

Become somebody: The importance of physician advocacy

May 5, 2016 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Primary Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
#AskKevinMD Live! Episode 3
Next Post >
Become somebody: The importance of physician advocacy

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

  • How social media can help or hurt your health care career

    Health eCareers
  • The triad of health care: patient, nurse, physician

    Michele Luckenbaugh
  • Why health care replaced physician care

    Michael Weiss, MD
  • To fix health care, ask patients to change their understanding of how a health care system should work

    Richard Young, MD
  • Why health care fails to deliver better value in patient care

    Kristan Langdon, DNP and Timothy Lee, MPH
  • Turn physicians into powerful health care influencers

    Kevin Pho, MD

More in Physician

  • The backbone of health care is breaking

    Grace Yu, MD
  • Why doctors must ask for help before burnout escalates

    Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH
  • Why medicine is like a jazz solo

    Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA
  • Why so many patients ask for drips—and what doctors wish they knew

    Dr. Akintola Aminat Olayinka
  • Reproductive care after Roe: Why silence is not an option

    Christine Petrin, MD, MPH and Susan Thompson Hingle, MD
  • When your identity is your job: Why it’s dangerous in medicine

    Brooke Buckley, MD, MBA
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Health equity in Inland Southern California requires urgent action

      Vishruth Nagam | Policy
    • Could antibiotics beat heart disease where statins failed?

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • How restrictive opioid policies worsen the crisis

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • Why palliative care is more than just end-of-life support

      Dr. Vishal Parackal | Conditions
    • My improbable survival of stage 4 cancer

      Kelly Curtin-Hallinan, DO | Conditions
    • How Ukrainian doctors sustained diabetes care during the war [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why transgender health care needs urgent reform and inclusive practices

      Angela Rodriguez, MD | Conditions
    • COVID-19 was real: a doctor’s frontline account

      Randall S. Fong, MD | Conditions
    • Why primary care doctors are drowning in debt despite saving lives

      John Wei, MD | Physician
    • New student loan caps could shut low-income students out of medicine

      Tom Phan, MD | Physician
    • Why pain doctors face unfair scrutiny and harsh penalties in California

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

      Harry Oken, MD | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • How Ukrainian doctors sustained diabetes care during the war [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The backbone of health care is breaking

      Grace Yu, MD | Physician
    • Why doctors must ask for help before burnout escalates

      Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Why medicine is like a jazz solo

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Why so many patients ask for drips—and what doctors wish they knew

      Dr. Akintola Aminat Olayinka | Physician
    • Reproductive care after Roe: Why silence is not an option

      Christine Petrin, MD, MPH and Susan Thompson Hingle, MD | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 38 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Health equity in Inland Southern California requires urgent action

      Vishruth Nagam | Policy
    • Could antibiotics beat heart disease where statins failed?

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • How restrictive opioid policies worsen the crisis

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • Why palliative care is more than just end-of-life support

      Dr. Vishal Parackal | Conditions
    • My improbable survival of stage 4 cancer

      Kelly Curtin-Hallinan, DO | Conditions
    • How Ukrainian doctors sustained diabetes care during the war [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why transgender health care needs urgent reform and inclusive practices

      Angela Rodriguez, MD | Conditions
    • COVID-19 was real: a doctor’s frontline account

      Randall S. Fong, MD | Conditions
    • Why primary care doctors are drowning in debt despite saving lives

      John Wei, MD | Physician
    • New student loan caps could shut low-income students out of medicine

      Tom Phan, MD | Physician
    • Why pain doctors face unfair scrutiny and harsh penalties in California

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

      Harry Oken, MD | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • How Ukrainian doctors sustained diabetes care during the war [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The backbone of health care is breaking

      Grace Yu, MD | Physician
    • Why doctors must ask for help before burnout escalates

      Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Why medicine is like a jazz solo

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Why so many patients ask for drips—and what doctors wish they knew

      Dr. Akintola Aminat Olayinka | Physician
    • Reproductive care after Roe: Why silence is not an option

      Christine Petrin, MD, MPH and Susan Thompson Hingle, MD | Physician

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Dear patient: I need your help to change the health care system
38 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...