There will come a day when they will find me slumped over my desk; dead from overwork.

[Aristus]

I'm hoping it's not today. First patient up in fifteen minutes, and I've already been at the clinic for two hours doing paperwork.

Man, the sheer number of things I would no longer need to do if we just had a national health insurance plan...

[Get Me Outta Here]

1. A-fucking-men (nt)

[Anon-C]

2. Keep up your great work. We may have to wait another generation before

...such common sense changes can be made, and it may get worse before it gets better.

Please take care of yourself.

[underpants]

19. I second that

[niyad]

3. But think of all the people whose job will no longer be needed!

[Aristus]

5. Yeah.

Hack doctors working for greedy medical insurance companies who deny needed services to patients because it would harm shareholder value.

It drives me crazy how many muttonheads out there screech that they don't want the government making their health decisions (which it wouldn't), but they're perfectly happy having a greedy, soul-less, incompetent corporation making them instead.

[niyad]

9. It sounds like you are really going to need a very special cocktail tonight.

[Aristus]

12. Got one all picked out.

[malthaussen]

22. Cheers.

[IbogaProject]

36. The work load would be stable

Just the insurance "denial of coverage" crew would be out of work. I'd estimate there would be need for some additional health professionals after the switch. And any cost savings, which are expected to be received by the bottom 80% would get spent on other things. The expectation is we as a nation would begin saving money the first year, and the savings would compound in the years beyond. this would come from both reduced administrative costs and increased preventative health care heading catching more things early.

[bluedigger]

4. You don't get "Employee of the Month" for nothing.

You have to earn it.

[Aristus]

8. I've been working here twelve years.

Never got Employee Of The Month. No matter how much revenue I bring in, no matter that I'm the only provider left in the county who was here when I started.

Homeless medicine doesn't get the awards, the prizes, and the girls.

[malthaussen]

24. You got a girl already. n/t

[Aristus]

25. It was a joke.

Got the best girl ever! ( "Girl". She's sixty-two, and still as gorgeous as ever!)

[malthaussen]

27. Uh huh. You just tell Betsy that tonight. :)

[Aristus]

28. Haven't heard from her in a while. I've got the angels out looking for her.

"Heavens to Betsy! Heavens to Betsy! Come in, Betsy!"

[True Dough]

6. If you are found slumped over at your desk

There better be a few empty bottles of wine lying around!

At least it's Friday!

[jmbar2]

7. Just curious

Has the technology you are required to use become burdensome?

I applied awhile back to work in a care setting, and my entire day would have been spent entering stuff into MY cellphone. Then they told everyone "Don't be on your cellphone all day".

I went no further and bailed. The thought of having to run my whole day from a cellphone left me cold.

[Aristus]

11. No. It helps me to chart faster, and that's a bonus.

We're also linked in to many of the local hospitals, so we don't have to FAX records back and forth as much as we used to. When a patient comes in for a hospital follow-up, I can just click on the hospital admission record, and have the whole course of treatment right in front of me. Saves a lot of time in clinic.

[jmbar2]

17. Didn't think of what you were dealing with before

Faxing documents would have driven me crazy. Thanks for all that you do. I live in a small town and am unbelievably grateful for our medical providers here.

Take care of yourself. You are precious to your community!

[barbtries]

10. the USA

is being destroyed by capitalism run amuck. greed.
thank you for being so devoted and diligent in a difficult situation.

[Aristus]

13. Truth is, I actually love it; the actual hands-on medical care, that is.

I love my patients. They make everything worthwhile.

[barbtries]

14. what i was gonna say, and didn't,

is thank you for your devotion to your patients. Caregivers are the best.

[Pepsidog]

33. My son is in his first year as an orthopedic surgery resident and I am getting an education on what

it takes to become a physician. Every step was/is brutal. Get into med school-do well on boards-auditions for residency and if you are lucky or really good, you get to practice in the area you want. So he matched into his first choice for residency and gets to work 80 plus hour weeks not earning enough money to move out of my basement. 5 years of residency then gotta match into Fellowship. By that time he will be about 34 and then will start earning decent money. He said that ortho and neurosurgery brings a ton of money into the hospital but I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Like I said, I have a whole new appreciation for docs seeing what they experience and go through.

[Aristus]

34. I'm a Physician Assistant, not a doctor.

I won't even pretend that I have gone through as much as your son has and will continue to do. Good for him for choosing such a demanding field.

[Pepsidog]

35. My daughter wanted to be a PA but couldn't get into a program. She now works for Medtronic a great

company that treats her well. My other daughter just started her nursing career and is a nervous wreck. During the pandemic, while in nursing school, she didn't get the clinical hours so she feels unprepared. My experiences with PAs have been really good. The future is extremely bright for physician assistants and nurse practitioners and other medical providers who are increasingly taking over patient care especially in areas where there are doctor shortages. In fact, most of my visits to my family doc are spent with his PA who is really good and works really well the doc.

[Sailingdiver]

15. Oh, silly things like treat more patients? (End sarcasm font)

[TygrBright]

16. WHAT YOU SAY! THIS!!

I am struggling with the Medicare threshhold, as I'm still working and covered by an obscenely expensive health plan through my employment. Not planning to leave my employment any time soon, and my employer would be happy to pay the same percentage of my Medicare costs that they currently pay on my insurance through their group plan, but MAN is it complicated even to work out how to do that!

Medicare costs, BTW, include the mandatory Part B premium, the premium for my Part D prescription drug plan, and the premium for my Medicare-approved "supplemental" plan to cover expenses not covered by the other parts. All together, they total about a quarter of the monthly premium for the group plan, so it would be a good deal all around for me to switch over, and for them to pay the same percentage they pay as part of my benefits plan.

But even getting information on what can be done and how is a major pain in the ass.

If there was one cradle-to-grave single payer plan we all participated in, NONE of this farting around would ever enter the picture.

::sigh::

wearily,
Bright

[Warpy]

18. Docs and nurses want it, patients want it, pretty much everybody wants it

but we'll probably never see it because money talks louder than people do.

[area51]

37. +1 n/t

[keithbvadu2]

20. Well, if you had actually given back all that classified material you said you never had, the paperw

Well, if you had actually given back all that classified material you said you never had, the paperwork would be easier.

[Aristus]

21. I thought about it.

That did the trick.

[keithbvadu2]

23. Proud of ya!

[malthaussen]

26. You and teachers, both.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that all professions that provide a service to the people are drowning in paperwork and massively underfunded. It's the American Way.

-- Mal

[DFW]

29. Man, do I hear you on THAT one!

Even on days when I get home before the sun sets, I'm usually filling out forms from here to all hours of the night for the USA, the EU, or someplace that needs something useless, but required by some regulation somewhere or other. While the people I work with aren't patients, some of them try MY patience!

[Wild blueberry]

30. Meanwhile, please take care of yourself

[Aristus]

31. Will do.

[jackcrow2001]

32. Wishing the Media would ask regular people the basic questions

I'm amazed that it's so common to have reporters on scene in warzone's all over the world. Would really like to see someone asking average Canadians if they think the system in the United States is better than theirs, or ask any of the countries of the EU I was stationed in Spain for a long time, many medical procedures that the American Branch Clinic could not handle, were sent to the small local hospital's in southern Spain, seemed like the socialized medicine worked fine then....

Later Days

[Yavin4]

38. But...but...Capitalism makes things more efficient.

Or so I've been told.

[Aristus]

39. By capitalists, no doubt.