This is the truth, and a sad one. My ex-husband worked for a family residency program in SC and later in Southwest FL serving some of the poorest, neediest rural people in the nation. At some point, the system went from caring for patients to bean counting or as you refer to in this article “widgets.” Power was taken away from doctors, and given to business managers who were responsible or trimming away budgets. They did with the incentive of getting a portion of the savings they helped the hospital system save.
The good doctors started retiring or leaving the hospital. The good nurses left, those that could too. The same happened to the residency programs. My ex eventually left the last residency program after 5 years for a different kind of health care environment after nearly 20 years of working in two different residency programs. Morale is bad from the doctors to the business office staff. Nobody likes working at the hospitals now except the money people. They receive the only incentives to save, and it’s to save MONEY!
It’s different now, and not in a good way. Thank you for highlighting how complex and devastating all these pieces are to our current healthcare system. It’s one of the unhealthiest systems we have in the U.S.
I forgot to add this system of things played a huge role in the demise of marriage. My ex-husband’s long work hours training staff with the new EHR, overworked and underpaid nurse/clinical managers, high-turnover meat filling in the gap (often for months), and final kick in the pants, a pay cut! What he could say at work, came home. It wasn’t a situation for a long time. Glad you made it out with your sanity.
