ScrappleFace: Patients Fail to Notice Physician 'Slowdown' Protest

Patients Fail to Notice Physician 'Slowdown' Protest

(2003-02-03) -- Although more than 1,300 New Jersey physicians staged a work slowdown Monday to protest the high cost of malpractice insurance, patients reported no difference in service.

"Sure, I sat there naked under that flimsy gown for several hours, but what's new?" said Alan K. Seltzer of Paramus, NJ. "I thought protestors did unusual things to get your attention. This was the same old same old."

A spokesman for New Jersey physicians said next week's protest will include ice-cold stethoscopes, withholding eye-contact and illegible prescriptions.

Comments

Skip to Comments Form

All across the nation, workers of all types showed solidarity with the doctors. Cars backed up behind tollbooths, bags where filled with the wrong fast food, careless homework was handed in, and lame attempts at humor were submitted to websites.

Posted by: Jonathan Cohen at February 3, 2003 09:44 PM

Hmmmm...if my former HMO moved any slower, I think that it would actually be making people sick rather than curing them.

Wait, it was doing that already.

All we are saying, is give docs less torts!

John Lemon

Posted by: John Lemon at February 4, 2003 12:18 AM

Does this mean that people under a doctor's care are now "patienters"?

Posted by: MarcV at February 4, 2003 12:44 PM

No, they're "patience".

Posted by: dynagirl at February 4, 2003 11:52 PM

Perhaps "lack of patience" given that if they move any slower, we'll all be dead! I usually schedule the first doctor appointment in the morning and I still wait at least 20 minutes. They are backlogged even before they start.

John Lemon

Posted by: John Lemon at February 5, 2003 12:54 AM

Considering that mortality goes DOWN dramatically during doctors' strikes, the slowdown should save at least a few lives. Millions of patients saved from malpractice and iatrogenic infections!

Posted by: Robert Speirs at February 5, 2003 08:01 AM

Hilarious. Let's hear it for the doctors, rallying around the President after the State of the Union for a cause ALL Americans can get behind: protecting doctors from the effects of their malpractice.

People in New Jersey (and West Virginia, Mississipi, Florida and other states where doctors are on "slow down") clearly failed to heed the GOP national health care policy: don't get sick.

Posted by: the talking dog at February 7, 2003 12:31 PM

2001 Malpractice cases reported to National Practitioner Data Bank
State - # cases - Mean Amt - Median
New Jersey - 940 - 349,111 - 180,991
West Virginia - 207 - 230,554 - 100,000
Mississippi - 144 - 282,494 -130,000
Florida - 1,294 - 250,051 - 150,000

Here's the scary part:

# of malpractice
incidents -- # of physicians
1 -- 10,096
2 -- 5,056
3 -- 2,424
4 -- 1,260
5 -- 724
6 -- 384
7 -- 217
8 -- 138
9 -- 59
10 or more -- 126

I can easily understand and forgive one or two cases if they aren't blatant incompetence. However, can anybody suggest why any physician with five or more malpractice cases is still licensed? 10 or more?

Posted by: Dave Roberts at February 7, 2003 03:43 PM

Enough doctor whining about malpractice rates, when docs decide to deal with incompetence within their profession, rates will go down!

Posted by: iggy geopoli at May 8, 2003 02:25 AM