My Doctor husband came home crying yesterday

[Anonymous]

Dear medical heroes and heroines on the front lines

Thank you for all you do. Please ignore the brutally honest ignoramuses who do not understand how dysfunctional and politicized the US health care system is and how unprepared the government was for this pandemic. Having non medically-trained ideologues (who often do not even believe in science) making major public health decisions and running health insurance programs has had disastrous consequences for all of us.

You did not sign up for inadequate medical equipment and protective attire. You did not sign up for 14 hour days for weeks on end. Many of you are probably high risk individuals yourself and yet fulfilling your professional oaths to provide optimal heal care that involves being very close to infected persons and unable to change ppp masks gowns and gloves between patients. Your immune systems are probably further compromised by lack of sleep and stress. Those of you who are less busy, thank you anyway for contributing to patient care.

The level of disrespect and callousness towards your current professional challenges that extend to your families is disgusting. I believe that the vast majority of us are very appreciative of your efforts and also those who are keeping essential services going during the pandemic (grocery store workers, trash collectors, police etc.).

Thank you, thank you thank you and may God bless you and keep you and your families safe, and your collective morale up.
👩🏽‍⚕️👮🏻‍♂️👨‍⚕️⛑

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dear medical heroes and heroines on the front lines

Thank you for all you do. Please ignore the brutally honest ignoramuses who do not understand how dysfunctional and politicized the US health care system is and how unprepared the government was for this pandemic. Having non medically-trained ideologues (who often do not even believe in science) making major public health decisions and running health insurance programs has had disastrous consequences for all of us.

You did not sign up for inadequate medical equipment and protective attire. You did not sign up for 14 hour days for weeks on end. Many of you are probably high risk individuals yourself and yet fulfilling your professional oaths to provide optimal heal care that involves being very close to infected persons and unable to change ppp masks gowns and gloves between patients. Your immune systems are probably further compromised by lack of sleep and stress. Those of you who are less busy, thank you anyway for contributing to patient care.

The level of disrespect and callousness towards your current professional challenges that extend to your families is disgusting. I believe that the vast majority of us are very appreciative of your efforts and also those who are keeping essential services going during the pandemic (grocery store workers, trash collectors, police etc.).

Thank you, thank you thank you and may God bless you and keep you and your families safe, and your collective morale up.
👩🏽‍⚕️👮🏻‍♂️👨‍⚕️⛑

+ 1,000,000

[Anonymous]

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

MD here. You don't get it. You don't think the job was already hard? That we weren't already physically threatened routinely (by both infections on violent patients)? Nickel and dimed by the private equity firms that own all our groups? Suffered job creep where we are fully expected to chart at home so we can see more patients and make said hedge fund more money? And no we weren't complaining, expecting a pat on the back, or needing to be heralded as heroes. It's life, it's the job, we all get it. It's not the 80's anymore, which wasn't a great time in medicine anyway and largely got us to where we are now.

Here's the part I didn't sign up for:

Being quarantined from my family with inadequate and "recycled" PPE while being constantly exposed to a threat we can't even see coming.

Oh, and having my 401K and salary cut while doing it because the hedge fund that owns us is pushing profit loss into the laps of clinicians due to necessary cancellation of elective procedures. Clinicians who are hospital workers. Not plastic surgeons who are also small business owners and hung out a shingle to make that good money but also assume the associated risks. I'm taking internists, ER docs, nurses. This is blatant contract violation and it's being shoved in our faces as we go to work.

Lastly, props to the CDC for hastily writing recommendations that health care workers continue to work, even if exposed to covid, as long as we're asymptomatic. Guess what? That's all of us. We've all been exposed. That's about avoiding litigation for the class action lawsuits they know are coming.

So I'll sleep OK that I don't have your sympathy. I've got bigger problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

MD here. You don't get it. You don't think the job was already hard? That we weren't already physically threatened routinely (by both infections on violent patients)? Nickel and dimed by the private equity firms that own all our groups? Suffered job creep where we are fully expected to chart at home so we can see more patients and make said hedge fund more money? And no we weren't complaining, expecting a pat on the back, or needing to be heralded as heroes. It's life, it's the job, we all get it. It's not the 80's anymore, which wasn't a great time in medicine anyway and largely got us to where we are now.

Here's the part I didn't sign up for:

Being quarantined from my family with inadequate and "recycled" PPE while being constantly exposed to a threat we can't even see coming.

Oh, and having my 401K and salary cut while doing it because the hedge fund that owns us is pushing profit loss into the laps of clinicians due to necessary cancellation of elective procedures. Clinicians who are hospital workers. Not plastic surgeons who are also small business owners and hung out a shingle to make that good money but also assume the associated risks. I'm taking internists, ER docs, nurses. This is blatant contract violation and it's being shoved in our faces as we go to work.

Lastly, props to the CDC for hastily writing recommendations that health care workers continue to work, even if exposed to covid, as long as we're asymptomatic. Guess what? That's all of us. We've all been exposed. That's about avoiding litigation for the class action lawsuits they know are coming.

So I'll sleep OK that I don't have your sympathy. I've got bigger problems.

Cool it angry doc. There are 16 million unemployed Americans today who were working a month ago. Plus many more with big pay cuts and loss of benefits. So don't whine about your 401k and salary cut because that's a real Marie Antoinette moment. At least you still have a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

MD here. You don't get it. You don't think the job was already hard? That we weren't already physically threatened routinely (by both infections on violent patients)? Nickel and dimed by the private equity firms that own all our groups? Suffered job creep where we are fully expected to chart at home so we can see more patients and make said hedge fund more money? And no we weren't complaining, expecting a pat on the back, or needing to be heralded as heroes. It's life, it's the job, we all get it. It's not the 80's anymore, which wasn't a great time in medicine anyway and largely got us to where we are now.

Here's the part I didn't sign up for:

Being quarantined from my family with inadequate and "recycled" PPE while being constantly exposed to a threat we can't even see coming.

Oh, and having my 401K and salary cut while doing it because the hedge fund that owns us is pushing profit loss into the laps of clinicians due to necessary cancellation of elective procedures. Clinicians who are hospital workers. Not plastic surgeons who are also small business owners and hung out a shingle to make that good money but also assume the associated risks. I'm taking internists, ER docs, nurses. This is blatant contract violation and it's being shoved in our faces as we go to work.

Lastly, props to the CDC for hastily writing recommendations that health care workers continue to work, even if exposed to covid, as long as we're asymptomatic. Guess what? That's all of us. We've all been exposed. That's about avoiding litigation for the class action lawsuits they know are coming.

So I'll sleep OK that I don't have your sympathy. I've got bigger problems.

This post is exactly why we need universal healthcare. The hospitals could follow the Mayo Clinic model and eliminate the extra burdens and let drs be drs. Really, if it was done it would be feasible to have med school free for the better good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how bad things have gotten here, in the DMV. My tough, macho Dr. husband, who I've only seen cry once in our 20 year marriage, is a seasoned Doctor (hospitalist). Therefore he is a hospital-based physician and is/will be working in the hospital with Corona patients.

He came home from work crying yesterday. It scared me. He says things are bad already, he and the staff are being worked to the bone, they are all stressed, no one knows proper protocol for treating these patients and protective gear, mistakes are already being made because staff is confused, morale is low, staff are starting to call out sick with CV, and the CV cases are multiplying. He hears from his colleagues at NYC hospitals about how things are going there now and is terrified.

He's terrified of getting the virus since they are being told to reuse protective gear.

This situation is terrible, folks. The doctors are at the point where many of them are freaking out.

I have never seen my husband so stressed. I've never been so stressed/depressed in my life.

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

Nurse here. I have to be brutally honest with you; F off. This is what he signed up for? GTFO. None of us signed up for this. Long hours, missing holidays, stress, helping people? Ok, yeah sure. Not having proper equipment? Nah, we did not sign up for that. I am compassionate but not a martyr. Health care providers are dying out of sheer incompetence from the government. By making health care providers out to be martyrs, people like you, the government, and hospital administrators get to wash their hands of culpability. You want health care workers to stop whining about it? Give us the right PPE. You would never send a soldier to war with a broom stick and tell him/her that he/she knew what they were signing up for.

I don't believe the government runs the hospitals in the US. In the UK, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The health care workers on the front lines of this are like the fire fighters rushing into the WTC on 9/11. It’s unfathomable how our government is so ill prepared to equip them with what they need. The slowness is inexcusable. What they have gotten is largely the result of donations.

This.
RN who used to work in hospital and worry for my previous coworkers

Other than the VA hospitals does our government run hospitals in this country? Is it not the responsibilities of the hospitals to have supplies for their workers?

We are in a global pandemic. This is a national security situation without any exaggeration. There should be federal and state stockpiles and protocols and these should have been activated months ago.

To the OP and health care workers: thank you for putting your lives on the line.

So I get that the trump administration was downplaying this from the beginning- but were states and hospitals not paying attention at all to what was going on the last few months? Cuomo talks a good talk now but why wasn’t he getting supplies for NY back in January? Lots of blame to go around.

New York City is a heavy international travel city. Agree that plenty of blame to go around. I talked to a vendor in late January regarding a business trip in late February and he told me to avoid any NYC airports as
he thought there would be high risk of getting Coronavirus just by walking through a NYC airport. Clearly Mayor and Governor dropped the ball given the known Asian and European travel through NYC on a daily basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The health care workers on the front lines of this are like the fire fighters rushing into the WTC on 9/11. It’s unfathomable how our government is so ill prepared to equip them with what they need. The slowness is inexcusable. What they have gotten is largely the result of donations.

This.
RN who used to work in hospital and worry for my previous coworkers

Other than the VA hospitals does our government run hospitals in this country? Is it not the responsibilities of the hospitals to have supplies for their workers?

We are in a global pandemic. This is a national security situation without any exaggeration. There should be federal and state stockpiles and protocols and these should have been activated months ago.

To the OP and health care workers: thank you for putting your lives on the line.

So I get that the trump administration was downplaying this from the beginning- but were states and hospitals not paying attention at all to what was going on the last few months? Cuomo talks a good talk now but why wasn’t he getting supplies for NY back in January? Lots of blame to go around.

They were. There simply weren’t enough supplies to go around and there is an issue of some hospitals having an abundance and some having a shortage and it’s impossible for hospitals to take care of that inequity on a national level. Not that all hospitals had a great response but hospitals were indeed trying.

As far as Cuomo goes, he probably assumed that the US government and the CDC could respond to health crises the way they had in the past: competently. Everybody was shocked when the CDC dropped the ball on testing and when the US government had stopped maintaining the national reserve of PPE. But he was aware of the dangers the virus could cause back in January and was making an effort to get supplies and work on coordination.

Anyone who assumed Trump and this CDC would handle this competently is a fool.

Why the CDC? The CDC has a good track record. How did you know they would handle it incompetently? The reason they didn’t was a series of unfortunate events, not general incompetence, so I don’t know how somebody could have predicted that.

NYT had a good article about the extreme level of regulation in the US hindered the testing and the head of the CDC followed the regulations to a "T" slowing startup of testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

MD here. You don't get it. You don't think the job was already hard? That we weren't already physically threatened routinely (by both infections on violent patients)? Nickel and dimed by the private equity firms that own all our groups? Suffered job creep where we are fully expected to chart at home so we can see more patients and make said hedge fund more money? And no we weren't complaining, expecting a pat on the back, or needing to be heralded as heroes. It's life, it's the job, we all get it. It's not the 80's anymore, which wasn't a great time in medicine anyway and largely got us to where we are now.

Here's the part I didn't sign up for:

Being quarantined from my family with inadequate and "recycled" PPE while being constantly exposed to a threat we can't even see coming.

Oh, and having my 401K and salary cut while doing it because the hedge fund that owns us is pushing profit loss into the laps of clinicians due to necessary cancellation of elective procedures. Clinicians who are hospital workers. Not plastic surgeons who are also small business owners and hung out a shingle to make that good money but also assume the associated risks. I'm taking internists, ER docs, nurses. This is blatant contract violation and it's being shoved in our faces as we go to work.

Lastly, props to the CDC for hastily writing recommendations that health care workers continue to work, even if exposed to covid, as long as we're asymptomatic. Guess what? That's all of us. We've all been exposed. That's about avoiding litigation for the class action lawsuits they know are coming.

So I'll sleep OK that I don't have your sympathy. I've got bigger problems.

Cool it angry doc. There are 16 million unemployed Americans today who were working a month ago. Plus many more with big pay cuts and loss of benefits. So don't whine about your 401k and salary cut because that's a real Marie Antoinette moment. At least you still have a job.

Previous poster is upset because healthcare workers are not being protected properly and forced to work in these conditions. You don’t get it.

It’s not about job loss or 401k. It’s about contracting the virus and dying or self quarantining and exposing other co-workers and patients to it. Job loss is irrelevant when you are dead.

[Anonymous]

Cool it angry doc. There are 16 million unemployed Americans today who were working a month ago. Plus many more with big pay cuts and loss of benefits. So don't whine about your 401k and salary cut because that's a real Marie Antoinette moment. At least you still have a job.

So, these are not military recruits who signed up for putting their life on the line over and over and over each day to take care of patients These are professionals who are risking their lives and their family lives if still living with them at home due to lack of adequate personal protection equipment to reduce the likelihood they will get infected to this aggressive virus. Don't understand if you can't see that or that you have so much financial and other stress you are dealing with that you just can't fathom we are asking our medical personnel to handle this unsafely and stomping on them at the same time a la reducing their income

[Anonymous]

Angry doc, consider changing jobs to a different facility not owned by a hedge fund after this is over.

My girlfriend works at a hospital and starting in January
she was working 11 hour days mostly in planning capacity so that the facility would be ready for the corona virus.
She was in a lot of planning meetings regarding supplies,
foods for medical workers, where medical workers would sleep at the facility etc.

Working at a hospital owned by a hedge fund sounds brutal. There are many under doctored hospitals in the US particularly in rural areas that would love to have you but again the pay will be a lot less than what you get now but your quality of life will be better.

[Anonymous]

In other words, at a time health care providers are maybe wanting to get a hotel room so as to not infect their families, their income is DROPPING. They have LESS cushion to buy their way out of this new problem of needing to keep distance between themselves and family, and maybe being exhausted and not being able to cook etc. Usually if your work life is booming, your income increases and you can use the extra money to deal with stuff on the homefront that you no longer have time for. Here, people are stressed at work AND stressed income wise, plus believe me, it sends a message that no one competent is in charge or cares that you are working in such challenges. Life or death, but no one cares. RN.

[Anonymous]

At this point the majority of health care workers are being furloughed and laid off due to lack of medical demand, including at hospitals.

Angry doc was also whining about his pay cut and 401k, not just PPE.

[Anonymous]

I have far far more respect for paramedics, nurses, technicians, than docs who are spending a fraction of their time on the front lines of the crisis but earning exponentially less than docs. Yes, docs play a critical role as a member of the overall team but their colleagues see more danger to personal health all the time. Most of my doc friends have pursued the MD route primarily for the income so now when that income in being threatened (see the PP MD whinning) AND they are being overworked with some additional hazards, they can’t deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At this point the majority of health care workers are being furloughed and laid off due to lack of medical demand, including at hospitals.

Angry doc was also whining about his pay cut and 401k, not just PPE.

Just In Time medical. What could go wrong?