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In case you wondered why your doctor would sell you down the river
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by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
Feb. 3, 2006
A recent article in a medical journal is entitled "Is whistleblowing
worth it?, and subtitled "All too
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often, physicians who protest patient safety problems
at their hospitals risk being fired for 'disruptive' behavior. What's
an ethical doctor to do?"
The
article describes the cases of several doctors who elected to do the
right thing and paid a very dear price for the privilege. For example:| |
When San Francisco internist John Ulrich Jr. learned that Laguna Honda Hospital was planning to lay off medical personnel, including physicians, he protested at a staff meeting, claiming the layoffs would endanger patient care. He and a group of colleagues later sent a written protest to the city's health department. About two weeks later, the hospital's medical director informed him that a peer review committee had launched an investigation into his professional competence.
Disgusted, Ulrich resigned. The hospital reported his resignation to the state board and the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), noting that it had followed "commencement of a formal investigation into his practice and professional conduct." Although the state board found no grounds for action, the hospital refused to void the NPDB report, which essentially made Ulrich unemployable as a practicing physician. ... |
Having been
in very similar situations myself on several occasions, I can attest
first hand to the validity of the conclusion the article's author reaches: "Whatever
their legal protection, the whistleblower's battle will probably be
difficult" with the proviso that "difficult" be changed to
"impossible."
But the problem goes much deeper and is much more widespread than
observers outside the health care system are likely capable of
appreciating. Dramatic cases such as described in the above article
are instructive, but the real issue lies in the countless minor
conflicts of interest that happen every day, and given enough time,
will affect all of us eventually, many fatally. We are urged to pay
attention only to the tip of the tip of the iceberg and believe,
somehow, that the outrages described don't actually affect us ordinary
folks.
The Hippocratic Oath,
boiled down to its essence, says that doctors should not take advantage
of their patients. The ethical problems addressed by our oath remain
with us because sick, worried, desperate people make the very best of
marks, much easier to skin than a baby with candy (there is the risk
that a baby may bite). Apparently the Hippocratic Oath, like our
Constitution, has been silently scrapped in favor of the monetary
interests of both huge corporations and countless petty con men and con
women who administer every aspect of our so called "Health Care
System," which might be much less euphemistically called the "Health
Extortion System."
I mean to be alarmist here. As things are going, you and your loved
ones will be harmed by the decisions of unscrupulous managers
preventing your well meaning physician from doing the right thing.
And
not a little bit harmed either. Expect to need some blood product?
Transfusion during surgery? Human derived antibody products such as
hyper-immune globulins to treat hepatitis exposure? You would be right
to believe that the blood products industry is one of the most highly
regulated in the country, but do not be deceived. I once worked as a
physician in the plasma collection industry. Believe me, you do not
want to know what actually goes on in this seemingly "highly regulated"
but actually poorly regulated industry. All the regulations in the
world are not going to help when private operators can make fortunes by
ignoring them and can be assured, in return for political support, of
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I mean to be alarmist here.
As things are going, you and your loved
ones will be harmed by the decisions of unscrupulous managers
preventing your well meaning physician from doing the right thing.
And
not a little bit harmed either.
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Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
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Someone you know, and likely love, will have a serious head injury and end up in a coma in a neurological intensive care unit being cared for while they wait for you to wake up.
A large percentage of such head injury patients, if given time, will recover substantially or even completely.
But I would advise not having your head injury in the Bay Area (and, for all I know, many other places in the US).
As informed by a reliable source at the prestigious University of California Medical Center in San Francisco, you or your loved one will have exactly five days to show signs of waking up before you are shipped out to the wards to die -- a death sentence for many who need a longer wait.
There is no science to support this approach, just economic considerations.
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There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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doing so without fear of enforcement.
Someone you know, and likely love, will have a serious head injury and
end up in a coma in a neurological intensive care unit being cared for
while they wait for you to wake up. A large percentage of such head
injury patients, if given time, will recover substantially or even
completely. But I would advise not having your head injury in the Bay Area
(and, for all I know, many other places in the US). As informed by a
reliable source at the prestigious University of California Medical
Center in San Francisco, you or your loved one will have exactly five
days to show signs of waking up before you are shipped out to the wards
to die -- a death sentence for many who need a longer wait. There is no
science to support this approach, just economic considerations.
I could go on for thousands of words and dozens of paragraphs
describing such hidden atrocities just from my own personal knowledge.
The "take away point" here is that your doctors have been
systematically, persistently, and effectively prevented from coming to
your aid, or being your advocate, by the criminal efforts of those who
manage our system of health provision (the word "care" does not seem
appropriate).
In case you haven't figured it out by now, one of the major reasons why
I have the time to write for Unknown News is that I have always kept my
oath. I have never stood by and let people be hurt or killed for the
sake of going along to get along. Consequently, I have given up the
opportunity, as have many other ethical physicians, of "standing by" at
all.
But don't believe me. There are a whole raft of tell all books by
eminent physicians and journalist on the subject. My favorites are:
The Truth About the Drug Companies by Dr. Marcia Angell, Critical
Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business -- And Bad
Medicine by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, and Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine by John Abramson.
© by the author.
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You're invited to respond:
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This is an archived Unknown News page. For newest material, visit our main page.
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We appreciate the heck out of everyone who helps.
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Previous articles by Dr Ruhs:
Time to pull the rip cord
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Can the President legally crush a child's testicles?
His lawyer says, "It depends ..."
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
The great American misunderstanding
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When death is the proper penalty
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The revolution this time
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The good tidings and the bad
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Health care in America: An ongoing, massive con game
by Paul Krugman, The New York Times
with comments by Herb Ruhs, MD
Competition: Destroyer of character
by Herb Ruhs, MD
America without the myths
by Herb Ruhs, MD,
To dream the impossible dream
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Refusing to see the obvious
by Maureen Dowd, The New York Times
with comments by Herb Ruhs, MD
What can we do? Rhetorically speaking, that is.
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Banned in Cloverdale, by Herb Ruhs, MD
All of us are being fatally poisoned
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Daubert is the most influential Supreme Court ruling you've never heard of
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Enough already
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War is sometimes justified, often not, but always insane
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The bad news is the same as the good news
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Trying to control your emotions "can make you pretty stupid"
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The gangsters' mentality
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Nietzsche, New Orleans, and 'Nam
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Four decades in five minutes
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The masquerade of "civilization"
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Habits of successful modern cannibals
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Face these horrors with acceptance, equanimity, humor
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Yet another, higher dose of pain
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The war of one against all:
The roots of our enslavement
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Doctors, medicine, hospitals, and the rest of the story
by Herb Ruhs, MD
System of privilege expands in scope and overall power
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Highway robbery turns out to be legal after all
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Class warfare, anyone?
Why class war is not a fiction but a fixture of our lives
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Why the little-known news is the most important
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Why "Free Speech" does not matter
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Big pharma
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The genius fish and other comments
by Herb Ruhs, MD
When all else fails, try the truth
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Childhood abuse and the role it plays in maintaining coercive power
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Murder by medical device
by Herb Ruhs, MD
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