Florida doctor tells Obama supporters: Go elsewhere

[cpants]

I haven't posted here in years but this topic struck a nerve with me. I read the first page until it became a pissing match.

This physician brings up an interesting idea that we all should be more aware of: physicians (all fields) should be more active in politics and health care law. Now...this guy did not go about it in the best way by any means, however, he did voice an opinion which MANY medical students and practicing doctor's DON'T KNOW CRAP ABOUT (trust me I am around them a lot). A majority of them don't know how or why they get paid just that they do indeed get paid. They don't like business and law...this is why they went into medicine but as we all know what goes into law a business directly affects our practice. Please educate yourself now and in the future about your particular specialty affiliates and support (ie give money) lobbying and lawmakers that backup your position.

As as a final point pre-meds IN GENERAL really don't know where a medical student, resident, or attending (fully trained practicing physician) is coming from in regards to health care. It takes so much sacrifice that you can't fully understand it until yourself go through it. Even as a finishing 2nd year medical student about to take USMLE can't fully comprehend. Sacrifice in terms of family time, friends, weekends, nights, holidays, events, baseball games, dinners, etc. In the end, we want AUTONOMY and GOOD REIMBURSEMENTS and the ability to take best care of out patients. Yes people go to med school IN PART because they know they will be more than financially secure. If you want to see how government run health care is, spend a day in the VA (veterans hospital) and ask yourself if this is how you want your health care to be. I too see cash-based practices more prevalent then they already are in the future.

As a final note. Its not all gloom and doom as people are very dramatic in this field. You do work your ass off (and don't ask me if I would do it over because you wouldn't like the answer) but you do have lots of rewards. I have limited clinic time (way less than even a full month) but have experienced great rewards in medicine that are only unique to this field.

A dermatologist in Texas fired his obama-voting employee and bragged about it on an online forum. I can't find the link (its been deactivated) but was posted in the derm board.

Now the place might not be the cleanest or most modern, but I actually found VA practice very enjoyable. Everything is streamlined with that fantastic EMR. Patients, staff, and physicians alike all seem to have a lot of respect for each other. And there are minimal headaches when it comes to getting testing done, consults, etc. You type it into the computer and it gets done.

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[lejeunesage]

I haven't posted here in years but this topic struck a nerve with me. I read the first page until it became a pissing match.

This physician brings up an interesting idea that we all should be more aware of: physicians (all fields) should be more active in politics and health care law. Now...this guy did not go about it in the best way by any means, however, he did voice an opinion which MANY medical students and practicing doctor's DON'T KNOW CRAP ABOUT (trust me I am around them a lot). A majority of them don't know how or why they get paid just that they do indeed get paid. They don't like business and law...this is why they went into medicine but as we all know what goes into law a business directly affects our practice. Please educate yourself now and in the future about your particular specialty affiliates and support (ie give money) lobbying and lawmakers that backup your position.

As as a final point pre-meds IN GENERAL really don't know where a medical student, resident, or attending (fully trained practicing physician) is coming from in regards to health care. It takes so much sacrifice that you can't fully understand it until yourself go through it. Even as a finishing 2nd year medical student about to take USMLE can't fully comprehend. Sacrifice in terms of family time, friends, weekends, nights, holidays, events, baseball games, dinners, etc. In the end, we want AUTONOMY and GOOD REIMBURSEMENTS and the ability to take best care of out patients. Yes people go to med school IN PART because they know they will be more than financially secure. If you want to see how government run health care is, spend a day in the VA (veterans hospital) and ask yourself if this is how you want your health care to be. I too see cash-based practices more prevalent then they already are in the future.

As a final note. Its not all gloom and doom as people are very dramatic in this field. You do work your ass off (and don't ask me if I would do it over because you wouldn't like the answer) but you do have lots of rewards. I have limited clinic time (way less than even a full month) but have experienced great rewards in medicine that are only unique to this field.

A dermatologist in Texas fired his obama-voting employee and bragged about it on an online forum. I can't find the link (its been deactivated) but was posted in the derm board.

CBS news made an image file of the post before it was taken down. You can find it here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/images/2010/04/07/image6372797.jpg?tag=contentMain;contentBody

It's really lame and petty of that doc to do that. But, I don't think there's any law against discrimination based on voting patterns.

 

[UnlonelyRoad]

CBS news made an image file of the post before it was taken down. You can find it here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/images/2010/04/07/image6372797.jpg?tag=contentMain;contentBody

It's really lame and petty of that doc to do that. But, I don't think there's any law against discrimination based on voting patterns.

I think there is actually. I am pretty sure you can get yourself into a lot of trouble over "wrongful termination" if it can be demonstrated that you were fired for any reason other than that the company didn't have enough money or that you were terrible at your job. (Heck, you can get money sometimes even if those were the reasons!)

Basically, the fact that you don't like how they vote is not a good enough reason to can someone. Assuming you got a lawyer (and the businessman was stupid enough to post their intentions to an internet site) you'd almost certainly win.

 

[strummin]

Basically, the fact that you don't like how they vote is not a good enough reason to can someone. Assuming you got a lawyer (and the businessman was stupid enough to post their intentions to an internet site) you'd almost certainly win.

I talked to a law student recently and he told me that an employer can absolutely fire someone on the basis of political beliefs - without fear of a lawsuit (He could be wrong though - or I might have misunderstood him). From what I understood, it is perfectly legal and I've seen people on conservative forums brag about firing their employees because they voted for Obama (they of course could be making this up.. but I have a feeling that many have been fired and the fact that I haven't heard of any lawsuits might show that the ex-employees can't do anything about it.

 

[UnlonelyRoad]

I talked to a law student recently and he told me that an employer can absolutely fire someone on the basis of political beliefs - without fear of a lawsuit (He could be wrong though - or I might have misunderstood him). From what I understood, it is perfectly legal and I've seen people on conservative forums brag about firing their employees because they voted for Obama (they of course could be making this up.. but I have a feeling that many have been fired and the fact that I haven't heard of any lawsuits might show that the ex-employees can't do anything about it.

You can fire someone for almost any reason, assuming that you have another plausible reason for firing them that you can fall back on. Additionally, many people who are fired lack the resources or desire to contact a lawyer.

So, you could fire a 7-11 employee probably without incident, try to fire a nurse, you could get into a lot of trouble.

Even if there is no law against it, in a court of law if you could convince a jury that your boss held that opinion of you, they'd probably be a lot more willing to believe additional negative things about him, so it could help your case in that fashion.

However, the best defense if you are fired for political beliefs is to make such a fact public, so other folks don't make the mistake of working there.

I do know in many professions, it is very difficulty to just up and fire someone, you'd have to be working at a place with very little job security to be in danger of a move like this.

 

[RogueUnicorn]

depending on the employment contract signed you can be fired for wearing white after labor day

 

[Instatewaiter]

Now the place might not be the cleanest or most modern, but I actually found VA practice very enjoyable. Everything is streamlined with that fantastic EMR. Patients, staff, and physicians alike all seem to have a lot of respect for each other. And there are minimal headaches when it comes to getting testing done, consults, etc. You type it into the computer and it gets done.

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not.

In my experience at the VA (in one of the largest "flagship" VA's on teh east coast), things at the VA move SLOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLYYYYYY. It takes forever to get anything done. Forget if you order a vital test on a Friday. It won't get done until Monday. Nothing happens over the weekend. It is like the hospital shuts down.

You type your order it into the computer and it never gets done. And you wonder why. You have to call the nurse, or the radiology tech to come and do the study or take the patient each time you order ANYTHING.

While the EMR is decent, the staff who work at the VA move like molasses. Order something stat, unless you call the nurse it won't get done for hours. The VA is just crazy inefficient. In my experience the quality of care in the hospital setting just isnt the same at the VA as at other large hospitals.

 

[UnlonelyRoad]

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not.

In my experience at the VA (in one of the largest "flagship" VA's on teh east coast), things at the VA move SLOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLYYYYYY. It takes forever to get anything done. Forget if you order a vital test on a Friday. It won't get done until Monday. Nothing happens over the weekend. It is like the hospital shuts down.

You type your order it into the computer and it never gets done. And you wonder why. You have to call the nurse, or the radiology tech to come and do the study or take the patient each time you order ANYTHING.

While the EMR is decent, the staff who work at the VA move like molasses. Order something stat, unless you call the nurse it won't get done for hours. The VA is just crazy inefficient. In my experience the quality of care in the hospital setting just isnt the same at the VA as at other large hospitals.

Yet on a whole, patient satisfaction is much higher than with standard medical care.

I think either patients don't care about efficiency or you were caught in an outlier.

 

[lejeunesage]

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not.

In my experience at the VA (in one of the largest "flagship" VA's on teh east coast), things at the VA move SLOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLYYYYYY. It takes forever to get anything done. Forget if you order a vital test on a Friday. It won't get done until Monday. Nothing happens over the weekend. It is like the hospital shuts down.

You type your order it into the computer and it never gets done. And you wonder why. You have to call the nurse, or the radiology tech to come and do the study or take the patient each time you order ANYTHING.

While the EMR is decent, the staff who work at the VA move like molasses. Order something stat, unless you call the nurse it won't get done for hours. The VA is just crazy inefficient. In my experience the quality of care in the hospital setting just isnt the same at the VA as at other large hospitals.

Have you considered the possibility that something is wrong with just that specific hospital?

 

[cpants]

Yeah, that just wasn't the case in our VA. I mean, I'm not saying the workers were all super fast and efficient, but I had no issues with getting blood draws and radiological studies done. Maybe I just had low standards since I'm used to our main public hospital where the nursing is GOD AWFUL and good luck getting any kind of outpatient testing or screening for our patients even if they have charity care. What I love about the VA is that money doesn't really factor in to it. If the patient needs a test or screening, he gets it, and without 2 hours haggling with insurance companies and/or hospital bureaucrats. That, and instead of the word patient, they use the word "veteran". The vets are amazing guys (and gals) too.

 

[eddie13231]

There are private hospitals with EMR its not just the VA but yes they do ALL have the system so it does indeed make everything more streamlined and efficient.

There are plenty of VA's that I am sure are good (especially if they are teaching hospitals which I think quite a few are) but in my limited experience more often then not the quality of care is below the private sector. I remember CNN doing a special cast on it particularly errors made with disposable equipment being re-used.

Yes its nice that patients don't need special procedures for payment but at the VA you are sort of living in la la land (utopia) where everything is free. The basic fact still stands that someone is paying for their care (us-the taxpayers) but the billing is extremely streamlined but this also comes with electronic health records. The majority of patients you will probably be treating will have insurance of the like unless you pursue a cash-based practice. It is a pain in the ass I definitely agree but isn't this why insurance companies are the most profitable next to credit card companies? How else will they publish their huge revenues.