On Thursday evening, I took the following oath:
Today, in the presence of family, friends, teachers, and colleagues, I dedicate myself to the profession of Medicine.
I pledge myself to the service of humanity. I will use my skills to care for all in need, without bias and with openness of spirit. The health of my patients will be my first concern. I vow to hold sacred the bond between doctor and patient. I will hold in confidence all that my patients entrust to me. I will strive to alleviate suffering. I will respect the dignity and autonomy of my patients in living and dying.
As a Physician, I recognize my duty to society. I will work to promote health and prevent disease. I will advocate for the welfare of my community. Even under duress, I will not use my knowledge or my skills against humanity. I will acknowledge my limitations and my mistakes so that I may learn from them. To uphold these responsibilities, I will maintain my own well-being and the well-being of those close to me.
I will promote the integrity of the practice of Medicine. In the tradition of my profession, I honor all who teach me this Art. Through honest and respectful collaboration with my colleagues, I will seek new knowledge, reexamine ideas and practices of the past, and teach what I have learned.
Above all, the health of my patients will be my first concern.
This Oath I take freely and upon my honor.
Continue reading ‘The Contemporary Oath of Hippocrates’
So what would happen if all employer’s stopped contracting with health insurance carriers?
Would the system fall apart?
What moron decided it would be a good idea to tie health insurance to employment?* Why should those two go together? My car insurance doesn’t come with my job.
Yeah, yeah, I get the “but healthy employees are good for the company bottom line”…but are you sure about that? Does providing health insurance to your employees even help the bottom line?
The point of insurance is to pool risk. I suppose that a business is just as good as any other place to cultivate that risk pool. But why can’t the insurance business operate like the car insurance business? Pool risk from the public at large.
If you unraveled the health care industry from employers, wouldn’t they be able to spend more on employee wages and salaries thus putting cash back into the working man’s pocket allowing the working man to purchase his own insurance plan? That would give the working man…Gasp…choice! Such a dirty word.
Could I ask a few more rhetorical questions?
*Those Blue Cross folks at Baylor in the 1920’s probably get the nod for the prepaid business of health care–but the “HMO” existed for a decade or two prior to that.
I love it when other people do the work for me.
Hoover discusses this recent Jama article concerning residency work hours:
Nearly half of all months had violations during ambulatory settings and nearly 62% of months had violations where interns were working on inpatient services.
The ACGME needs to start cracking some balls if they want programs to take these duty restrictions seriously. If nothing is done, or programs are simply slapped on the wrist, the system will continue to be abused and work hour restrictions will be nothing more than fudged numbers on some slip of paper in the program director’s office.
I had mentioned in a previous comment that residency training is an odd bird. This work hour issue is one of those oddities.
Of course, I come from a fairly benign medical school–at least as far as the medicine program is concerned. I never heard much in the way of complaints about work hours from the residents I rotated with. Surgery is another issue…those poor bastards were miserable.
At any rate, who decided it was a good idea to keep people for 30 hours every 3rd night? Or 4th night? Or even 6th night for that matter? Musta been a bunch of military folks…
