Doctors Are Disrespected

Doctors’ Day was March 30th, as it is every year, and once again it went largely unnoticed.   The results of the poll below are very disturbing to me.  A sampling of over 300 doctors from around the country answered it at the entry entitled “Were You Recognized?”.  At least 40% were not!  I was one of those 40%.  I have seen a trend from a nice luncheon/event dwindle down to a trinket then to an email and now, well, nothing.   It is that TREND that scares and bothers me the most.  Why are we being disrespected by hospitals?  Without us there is no engine to run the machine.  They would make no money.  Is it because of the unholy matrimony of doctors now being employed by hospitals leading to the elimination of the need for them to work for our business?

Dale Carnegie once said, “The desire for a feeling of importance is one of the chief distinguishing differences between mankind and the animals.”  I know this recognition seems petty but in an era where doctors are burning out and quitting this job in record numbers I think it its should not be swept under the rug.   I find it ironic when hospital systems worry about “physician retention” yet fail to understand this simple point.

I ask you, my readers, to add a comment on why you think 40% of hospitals in this country failed to recognize their physicians on Doctors’ Day?  Do you think it was an oversight?  Was it that they just don’t care?  I, as well as others, await your thoughts.