I just heard.
A colleague, a man of integrity and warmth, a hard-working physician with ideals, ethics and many valued contributions, has taken his own life. His perspectives may have differed from mine at times, but every interaction was infused with respect. He was a good man.
Much has been written about the rate of suicide of physicians. One million Americans lose their doctors to suicide each year. Normally I would insert the word provider instead of the less inclusive physician, but in this case, I think there are special considerations that impact our devoted partners, our physician colleagues. The mountain they must climb to complete their education, their medical training, their residency, is very steep. It often leaves these committed and intelligent people with frightful mountains of debt.
And then they must provide care in a system that often forgets why it’s here – instead of focusing on making people well, we focus on manipulating metrics like length of stay, maximizing RVUs or seeing so many patients per hour. The very system that exists to serve the weak and wounded can become an inhumane and bureaucratic business that interferes with the very primitive impulse and guiding light that allowed these professionals to complete their vigorous training.
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