2xy wrote:

There has been more than one incident at Rhode Island Hospital in the past few years that the wrong body part was operated on. Wrong leg, wrong side of brain, etc. I know it's a teaching hospital, but sheesh! They also were recently fined for leaving a pair of forceps in a patient's body, and a broken drill-bit in another patient's scalp. WTF?

I had surgery on my hand in November, and they told me to write NO in sharpie on my right hand and YES in sharpie on my left, and the doc came in and signed my arm with sharpie as well before the surgery.

As a former nurse, I have seen some mistakes made by doctors. Doctors are only human. They do go to school for many years and for the most part they are correct. Although being in the military, I have run across some quakes for doctors. I don''t know if the military takes the rejects or what, but some of them just don't have their heads screwed on right.

sailorlover wrote:

As a former nurse, I have seen some mistakes made by doctors. Doctors are only human. They do go to school for many years and for the most part they are correct. Although being in the military, I have run across some quakes for doctors. I don''t know if the military takes the rejects or what, but some of them just don't have their heads screwed on right.

I dunno. I think military doctors get a bad rap. Sure, there are quacks in the military. But guess what....those doctors don't miraculously stop being doctors once their military obligation is over. They become civilian doctors. I've worked with a few civilian doctors who were prior military.

The military doesn't recruit doctors, usually....so it's not like they are "taking the rejects." The military pays for a person to go through medical school, and then the doctor has to serve a certain number of years to pay back Uncle Sam.

IME, a lot of military members and their families are used to being catered to by whatever doctor they saw as a civilian. Civilian doctors will, overall, kiss your ass and bend over backwards for you because they depend upon you as a customer. They want to keep their customers happy, even if it means breaking protocol or doing things like making up a bullshit diagnosis to get you that third ultrasound so you can see the sex of the baby. Military doctors get paid the same whether they see ten patients or a hundred patients a day. They also have to go by the book because they go through peer review frequently and are more likely to be held accountable for breaking protocol or fudging records.

(I was a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy)

2xy wrote:

sailorlover wrote:

As a former nurse, I have seen some mistakes made by doctors. Doctors are only human. They do go to school for many years and for the most part they are correct. Although being in the military, I have run across some quakes for doctors. I don''t know if the military takes the rejects or what, but some of them just don't have their heads screwed on right.

I dunno. I think military doctors get a bad rap. Sure, there are quacks in the military. But guess what....those doctors don't miraculously stop being doctors once their military obligation is over. They become civilian doctors. I've worked with a few civilian doctors who were prior military.

The military doesn't recruit doctors, usually....so it's not like they are "taking the rejects." The military pays for a person to go through medical school, and then the doctor has to serve a certain number of years to pay back Uncle Sam.

IME, a lot of military members and their families are used to being catered to by whatever doctor they saw as a civilian. Civilian doctors will, overall, kiss your ass and bend over backwards for you because they depend upon you as a customer. They want to keep their customers happy, even if it means breaking protocol or doing things like making up a bullshit diagnosis to get you that third ultrasound so you can see the sex of the baby. Military doctors get paid the same whether they see ten patients or a hundred patients a day. They also have to go by the book because they go through peer review frequently and are more likely to be held accountable for breaking protocol or fudging records.

(I was a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy)

That may be true however I actually have not known a civilian doctor except when I was growing up. Ever since I have been married, I have known nothing but Navy doctors. You're right there are quacks everywhere. It just seems like they don't care as much as the drs I see for referrals. It always seems like a circus at the clinic. People are in and out so quick. They seem to not have the time to dedicate to the patients than I expect they should. That was not very fair of me to say they are rejects though. I just get the impression that some of the "Navy" doctors, not the civilians working in the clinics, but the navy doctors don't seem to care. That they are there to do their time and move on.