I’m turning in my resignation under duress letter tomorrow to this medical clinic where 14 of the 32 doctors, nurse-practitioners, and physician assistants hired since 2019 have already quit. 8 more existing providers hired before then have also quit.
I’m a nurse-practitioner and the administration used invalid data to justify the outrageous number of patients per day they wanted me to see. They didn’t deny it was invalid, but would just insist I have to “pay my way” and keep my department profitable. Meanwhile, we were shockingly understaffed, and without consulting me they hired another provider I would need to train.
These people then acted horrified and hostile when I got behind on my documentation of patient visits. They got all high and mighty about how this presented a liability risk – while accepting no responsibility for this situation. This was even though they knew I was already working 80 hours per week trying to keep up with the s-show they threw me into while still providing quality care.
In reading between the lines of their repeated emphasis that I be “more efficient” even after the coding people confirmed there was nothing wrong with my medical coding, and I demonstrated I was faster at the documentation than their “EMR expert,” they REALLY mean I need to stop worrying about quality care.
They feel I should be like their favorite pet providers who simply skate in and out of patient exam rooms and barely do anything of consequence. Just enough to justify billing the insurance. Ugh. I bet you ALL have had visits like this. All your concerns are poo-poo’ed. Maybe some medicine is prescribed, and that is all.
And when I said that no, if they would not acknowledge that there was a problem and make any changes II could not continue to work there, they were not at all bothered to lose a highly experienced provider their patients love. That’s because I have been questioning them all along and been a pain in their rears.
And when I asked if they were concerned about their massive turnover, they said no, it’s normal for young providers to come and go. That’s because they’re flighty and not used to hard work, they said. ACTUALLY, as you can see in the diagram, the turnover rate for nurses and physicians throughout the pandemic has never been higher than 4% I tried to give them the 2022 JAMA this is from and they waved it away saying they had seen it. Oh REALLY? Then I asked if they knew that replacing a provider costs 2-3 times their annual salary and they said yes.
Ok, well, I did the math, and that means these idiots have paid $7.5 MILLION in turnover costs since 2019. It really makes me have some strong feelings about them telling me I have to “pay my way” by shorting my patients with crappy care. What if they treated their providers with respect, allowed them reasonable time with patients, and staffed the clinic appropriately? Then providers would probably stay and they would save millions.
So, are they just managerial idiots stuck in a trap of believing it is still the 1960’s?
Or are they exploitative a-holes using up young providers like toilet paper – just weeding out the idealistic ones in a medical pyramid scheme?