Eyes Bloodshot, Doctors Vent Their Discontent

I think that perhaps we are close to if not at the point that the attorneys and insurance companies, including medicare, have "won"--to the point that patients don't get care and doctors are "throwing in the hat/surgical cap..."

In a survey last year of nearly 2,400 physicians conducted by a physician recruiting firm, locumtenens.com, 3 percent said they were not frustrated by nonclinical aspects of medicine. The level of frustration has increased with nearly every survey.

“It will take real structural change in the work environment for physician satisfaction to improve,” Dr. Mark Linzer, an internist at the University of Wisconsin who has done extensive research on physician unhappiness, told me. “Fortunately, the data show that physicians are willing to put up with a lot before giving up.”