I just got an advertisement in the mail for two no-call civilian contractor physician positions in the mail for Naval Medical Center Portsmouth that were $70,000 more than I make on active duty. The requirement is only 3 years of experience. It would be very interesting having active duty and civilian physicians working in the same office with that kind of pay gap. I'm wondering if this means the military is going to change the way physicians are paid?
(holding my nose)
Reek of Putrefaction (Cover by Carcass/orig: ILLDISPOSED)
Snorting the stench of latent effluvium
And maturing damp fumes
This foul menage forces tears to your eyes
As the corpse's gas are exhumed....
Intoxicated by foul body odours
And the nauseating tepid whiff
Pinching your nostrils as you irrigate flatus
From the emaciated stiff...
Volatile entrails fume and steam
As they're meticulously hacked during discission
Evaporating sludge and bubbling pus -
A rotten gaseous expiration...
Fair use quote from:
http://www.sinteticor.com/artist_i/..._of_putrefaction_cover_by_carcass_lyrics.html
This is no change. It is, as I state above, merely the effluvium from the rotting Medical Corpse.
Lookit...
A senior LtCol USAF anesthesiologist colleague of mine, who was jerked around to no end at Travis for standing up for quality care, came to Andrews, then got out after ca. 10 years. He then came back, virtually the next day, as a civilian contractor, getting paid (sit down, please, if you compute standing) $250,000.000 MORE than I was getting paid as a LtCol anesthesiologist. Do the math: $400,000.00 plus for 40 hours of work per week, plus:
1) call only when he wanted extra dough
2) no threat of sand-filled vacation
3) no need to pee in cups
4) no need to listen for a telephone or real recall
5) Get Out of Jail Free card for around 50% of our military-specific training bull hockey (still had to do the other half [HIPPAA, MTM, etc.]).
6) Ability to wear cool civilian wear (shorts, polo shirt) to work, rather than annoying polyester (remember, they forbade us from wearing BDUs for a while, so it didn't seem as though we were at WAR or anything).
The problem with being a contractor is: the government is full of *****s who screw up contracts (cf. Boeing, KBR, etc.). Several months he went weeks without getting paid, because buckets of money were switched from the Squadron to the Med Group to HQ AMC to HQ AF and back, just because. Sadly, when our greedy/lazy O-6 Flight Commander finally opened her mouth and released the turgid teat of taxpayer money for doing NO work for five years straight (250-300 days/year of "TDY", "admin" = watching twins at home, or leave), she forced the powers that be to split my colleague's contract in twain. So now she works part time at Andrews and WRAMC/NHB, and he has to moonlight.
Similarly, very competent anesthesiologist, former Capt at Andrews years before, came back as contractor. After getting jerked around, contractor company changing 3-4 times in < 2 years, delays getting paid, she finally quit. She is now one of my partners at my civilian job.
Another anesthesiologist without prior military training lasted around a year; got into several knockdown/dragouts with PACU RNs, who didn't like him calling out doctor's orders from the O.R. (they wanted to take their best guess...yeah, the ones who warned me not to give morphine sulfate to a patient because she had a sulfa allergy...yeah, those ones). He's now in private practice in a hospital a few miles from me.
I won't mention the drunk contractor who nearly killed a patient by ordering fentanyl to treat the hypertension attending the patient's near-fatal hypoxic episode to a sat of 60...patient was only saved because the most excellent PACU RN outright refused to give the drug, started bagging the patient against the contractor's will, and sent a tech running to look for me instead. Of course, this RN is now out of the military, due to mistreatment and lack of respect (he had two attributes which made him unable to progress in the Nursing Corps, but he wanted to have more children, so he couldn't remove the attributes).
So thus, there is nothing new under the sun. But it still reeks. $400,000.00 per year of your taxpayer bucks...3 Major or LtCol anesthesiologists...all because of this administration's IRRATIONAL attachment to outsourcing, made necessary due to the military's complete inability to retain good physicians (active duty or contractor, but especially active duty).
See this quote from my site for more on contract abuse:
http://www.medicalcorpse.com/bottomlesspit.jpg
(still holding my nose)
P.S. Synchronicity: Just as I was gonna log off, saw this on MSNBC re: Raytheon and contract irregularities:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14704366/
Remind me again about the Core Value thing?
Oh, yeah, that's right:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4117583&postcount=16
--
R
http://www.medicalcorpse.com
