USAFdoc said:
there are certainly "burnout" FP jobs in both the civilian and military realms,but there are important differences:
1) Almost 100% of current mil FP clinic jobs are "burnout" jobs
2) If you are in a civ burnout job, you can leave
3) In a civ job,your employer knows you can leave and therefore will usually at least listen to your requests.
4) There are many "part-time" or locum FP jobs out there with GREAT hours.
5) SADDEST (poor) argument I keep hearing in defense of the current FP state in the USAF is this "its bad on the ouside too!" What a crock that is. Every single doc I know has loved their new CIVILIAN FP job compared to working the military system. ALSO, since when is it the GOAL and STANDARD of the USAF to try and measure up to the WORST the civilian world has to offer its patients? What happened to core values and excellent patient care? I'll tell you what, they got buried underneath 20 ft of metrics, 30 ft of failed cost cutting surgeon general failed planss, 40 ft of unqualified supervisor resumes, and 50 ft crap.
In other words,those of you enterring the realm of military primary care, prepare to get crapped on. You will be given the above 90 ft of worthless paperwork to wipe yourself with.
now that I got that off my chest,let me say some specifics on just what kind of worthless paperwork,and sometimes needed but someone else should be doing it paperwork going on.
1. MEPRS. how about being asked
every month to list how much time you spend doing EKGs,seeoing patients,exercising, deployment training,commander meetings, leave,holidays,weekend clinic etc. Basically you have to track everything you do and send it in so the SG can have his metrics.
2. Injury reports: so a guy sprains his ankle, well now you need to prepare a form 12 injury report,fill out an injury log, fill out a profile form, perhaps a sick quatrters form so he can be excused from mandatory PT,in addition to all the regular office notes, also,the mil keeps OTC meds like motrin so scripts for those meds as well,...all for just a simple ankle.
3. 4T profiles: these are all the troops with some sort of illness,pregnancy etc that keeps them from being deployable. Every month forms must be updated,filled out,signed etc, Used to be done by a specific other dept, but like about 20 other things,all are now given to the family docs to do.
4) PGUI: this is a pseudo electronic med health record. Docs mandated to use it to code patients, even though we already are paying coders to do that job and other paperwork contains the code. The system is slow and was developed for tracking statistics, not patient care. Frequent computer breakdown further add to the unnec part delay of this system. And it still must be printed out and signed to be put in a record (if you can find the patienrts record).
5)Referals: if a mil doc needs to make a referral,get ready for "hoop jumping" to the nth degree. First the doc must type in the referral and all details into the computer (about a 20 step process NOT including the 1-2 paragraphs needed of patiet hx so that it is not denied). Then it goes electronically over to the other side of the base, then faxed to TEXAS (no matter where your base is). Then they either fax it back to the home base if there is a problem, and mail a copy to the patients home address (if they have it). Then it is up to the patient to call on their own to schedule their appt with the specialist. Results coming back to the doc follow a just a convoluted path.....in the end many referrrals never happen, the military doc left holding the "litigation" bag. This is a far far far cry on the steamlined simple referral process I have as a civ doc.
