In his guest editorial, “Upending this country’s approach to health care” (J Fam Pract. 2018;67:744-745), T. R. Reid makes a number of good points. However, I disagree with his opinion that “This disgraceful state of affairs is not the fault of the nation’s physicians. Rather, the problems with health care in the United States stem from the system that American providers have to work in.”
Through our choices, we have helped create this current system. I started as a family practice attending physician in 1994 and worked in 2 community hospitals. One of these hospitals closed its doors in 2012 and the other merged with a large health care system in 2015. During my 25 years of practice, I watched all of my outstanding primary care colleagues (family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics; 25 to 30 in total) stop their practice of combined outpatient and inpatient work. I currently do not see any primary care physicians (who do outpatient work) during my hospital patient care. Yes, it’s lonely.
I believe this significant change in practice across the United States has led to unintended consequences. First, the administrative burdens (and likely costs) for hospitals and health care systems have risen. Newborn, pediatric, and adult hospitalist services had to be built or bolstered, and then maintained, and the growing number of employed physicians had to be managed. Second, primary care’s attractiveness to some medical students has declined. Should students want a practice where they will likely never take care of their patients in the office and the hospital?
I agree we have a “disgraceful state of affairs,” and we need to work together for the tough solutions. However, as health care leaders, we must take responsibility for our roles in creating the current system. We must acknowledge these roles and learn from them.
Chris Noah, MD
Middleville, Mich