What happened to the medical director, a former Army doctor named Ray Brovont, isn’t an anomaly, some physicians say. It is a growing problem as more emergency departments are staffed by for-profit companies. A laser focus on profits in health care can imperil patients, they say, but when some doctors have questioned the practices, they have been let go. Physicians who remain employed see that speaking out can put their careers on the line.
Today, an estimated 40-plus percent of the country’s hospital emergency departments are overseen by for-profit health care staffing companies owned by private equity firms, academic research, regulatory filings and internal documents show. Two of the largest, according to their websites and news releases, are Envision Healthcare, owned by KKR, and TeamHealth, of the Blackstone Group. EmCare, the health care staffing company that managed Brovont, is part of Envision.
Sadly, this has been going on for a while now. Outside of academic medical centers, which do have their own issues, thd bottom line looms ever larger. This is why many, if not most, community hospitals have done away with pediatrics, why ICUs are closing beds, why elective surgeries are so highly prioritized. Profit motivation has no place in healthcare, or at least shouldn’t. And i suspect we will find that covid hastened this process along.
This should trigger a class-action lawsuit by any patient who has had a negative outcome at their facilities. If they are going to dictate care without a medical license, over-rule actual physicians, and punish them for speaking out, it needs to cost them 10x what they think they are making from these policies.
Mmmm. I love the smell of biological essentialism in the morning.
Does make me wonder how much trans porn is in the browser histories of the various GOP troglodytes who harp on about this stuff. They’re always so obsessed with our genitals.
