Dear “Provider”

I refuse to accept that I’m old, but some things sure have changed in the last few years. I thought maybe it was a “Miami thing” the way doctors are treated… Somewhere between a waitress when you don’t like the food at a restaurant and a hairdresser at supercuts (sorry Supercuts).

The attitude toward physicians and nurses from hospitals and administrators seems to have changed. We are no longer the über educated, independently thinking, hard working physicians, surgeons, nurse practitioners and physician assistants we once were. Now, we are “providers”. Here to provide specified care to the hospital’s “clients”, here to experience a “cultural transformation” to “efficiently utilize” the available patient encounters and maximize the patient experience and survey scores while minimizing expense incurred to the hospital. Each provider/FTE must be used to maximum efficiency and profit.

I link the change in attitude to a change in language. Instead of a letter addressed “Dear Dr Neville”, often with a gentle blue line through the formal title and “Holly” handwritten in, now my letters are printed on cheap paper  folded unevenly addressed to “Dear Provider”… Usually followed by instructions to take a “mandatory CBL”.. on hand washing.. or not committing fraud. I’m not sure they realize this, but I have a mother.. And she did a good job raising me…

I AM A HUMAN! A PHYSICIAN! A SURGEON!! I TAKE CARE OF HUMANS AND I WASH MY HANDS!! (AND I DONT COMMIT FRAUD EITHER)

My patients are handed to me (and my freshly washed hands) by their tearful parents. The parents entrust me with the life of their beautiful child… Who doesn’t look much like an RVU to me.

When I finish,  the hospital proceeds to calculate my efficiency, the time it takes and cost of the instruments and equipment I use and compare it to the other “system providers”. They then generate a report and provide me, the provider, with recommendations and tips to reduce cost and assist the hospital to maximize reimbursement for the CPT and ICD10 that the provider has provided.

I had a partner who used to tell me “you’re only as good as your last hernia”… maybe… But listen up hospital administrators… That hernia? On your client, for my RVU’s based on your CPT’s… It’s gonna be good, it’s going to be efficient… Not because of your policies, CBL’s or weekly reviews. It’s gonna be good because I chose this field to be a teacher, a caregiver, to make sick infants and children well, to hold hands, to wipe tears, to be a physician and the best surgeon that I can be. And so did my “provider” colleagues.

So please, call me Dr Neville, Doc, Hey You, or call me Holly… I’ve been called plenty of things most of which I’ll accept or have even deserved…  but please don’t call me “provider”.  My patients deserve better.