the time is now



 

Warning! Op-ed:

When I closed my practice after thirty years in Family Medicine I told my patients and colleagues I was retiring…when I meant I was quitting.

“Quitting is leading, too.”

~Nelson Mandela~

I didn’t put it quite that way, of course. It wasn’t as though I simply got fed up with things, turned in my stethoscope and tongue blades, and slammed the door on my way out of the office. I wasn’t impulsive about it at all. I agonized over my decision for years until I knew the time was right.

“The moment you feel like

you have to prove your worth to someone

is the moment to

absolutely and utterly

walk away.”

~Alyala Harris~

It had nothing whatsoever to do with my patients. Caring for them has always been my passion. Nor was I defeated by the perpetually long hours that became interminable as I grew older. Nor was I discouraged by the fact that I’d been running behind schedule all day, every day for three decades with no chance I’d ever catch up.

No. What finally did me in was the erosion of my authority as a physician by self-proclaimed intermediaries who had neither knowledge of nor concern for my patients’ wellbeing. When I started out in medicine the problem was oppressive paperwork; now-a-days it’s an oppositional defiant electronic medical record system. A baffling coding and reimbursement system. The ever-present threat of litigation. A pharmaceutical industry that invests as heavily in marketing as it does in research. A health insurance industry whose number one priority is corporate profit…not compassionate care. Aggravations that follow physicians through life like a swarm of angry bees.

“Be the change you wish to see

in the world.”

~Mahatma Gandhi~

Isn’t it about time we restored autonomy and authority to physicians and health care providers...the men and women who have dedicated their lives to delivering compassionate and capable health care to their patients? Isn't it time to put patient care first, again? 

What do you think? Is this the time?

“The time is now.

The person is you.”

~Nido R. Qubein~

jan