I am leaving Kaiser as a doctor, and happily so.
Posted on 10 July 2009
I am leaving Kaiser as a doctor, and happily so.
I am a specialist and see every day patients who are hurt by their Kaiser Primary care doctor (PCPs)
The PCPs are encouraged to treat disorders, injuries, and problems for which they have no to minimal tranining –a “wait and see if it gets better” approach to medicine. The patients are often forced to wait months to years before they are allowed to see a specialist.
As a specialist, I would see patients who were beyond fixing–usually old injuries because the primary-care doctor refused to allow the patient to see a specialist.
Kaiser is very political. As a new doctor there, I was told how to manage patients. I had no autonomy and was constantly overlooked and critized for treating patients outside their protocols. I was forced to perform procedures and then essentially boot the patient out of our clinic without any type of follow-up.
It was awful. I, myself, like to follow a patient to ensure they get better. My Department Chief, would tell me that I could not have patients see me more than once. He didn’t care if they got better or not.
Unfortunately, Kasier was my first job out of residency. Everyone thought that I was so lucky, At first, I thought I was fortunate to find such a great job, but as I worked there, I realized how Kaiser truly does not care about the patient. At Kaiser, you are a number. It’s “mass medicine”
I worked incredubly long and hard hours. Sometimes even moreso than as a resident and I didn’t get paid anymore.
Its unfortuante that my very first experience out of residency was at Kaiser. Its unfortunate that medicine has become this.
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