ORANGE COUNTY: ‘No Preferred Patients’ for UCI Doctors
Specialized doctors at UCI Medical Center, Orange County's largest teaching hospital, will no longer be allowed to "reserve open slots for patients who have good insurance or particularly interesting illness," the Orange County Register reports. Earlier this month, hospital CEO Mark Laret and four other ranking UCI officials ordered "faculty to stop reviewing patients' charts before deciding whether to accept them." In addition, doctors must now adhere to four other guidelines:
- Increase discussion with community physicians over patient status;
- Only order costly tests approved by the referring doctor;
- Refrain from complaining about fees to patients and other doctors;
- Be responsible for completing certain forms.
The response from UCI doctors was mixed; "[s]ome people were angry, others just shrugged their shoulders," said Dr. Frank Meyskens, director of UCI's Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. The events in Orange County reflect changes in academic hospitals nationwide. As profit margins fade, "administrators are reacting by laying off staff and demanding greater productivity and accountability from doctors who are used to setting their own schedules and indulging their personal research interests." Meyskens added, "The faculty is wearing out. The amount of paperwork is five to 10 times what it was 10 years ago. That's what happens when you have corporate-driven medicine. Your patients aren't the boss anymore. The shareholders are" (Kowalczyk, 10/25).
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