Bellingham physician who decried lack of
coronavirus protections is removed,
sparking protest
Seattle Times,
by
Patrick Malone
Original Article
Posted By: Ron_lfp,
3/29/2020 10:08:40 PM
The intersection of a global pandemic and the for-profit U.S. medical sector came to a head this weekend when a national physicians group called on Washington regulators to investigate the termination of a doctor who’d publicly criticized a Bellingham hospital for inadequate coronavirus protections.
Dr. Ming Lin worked at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center for 17 years until he was removed on Friday by TeamHealth (snip) Lin became a national avatar for frustrated health care professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak by speaking up in the press and on social media with pleas for more medical supplies and stronger standards to protect health care workers combating the virus.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
bamboozle 3/29/2020 10:19:46 PM (No. 362431)
Kind of like the Chinese Wuhan doctor who was silenced by the state, eh?
9 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Mushroom 3/29/2020 10:20:15 PM (No. 362432)
I suspect this isn't the first time management has heard from the Doctor. He's a contract employee. He dissed his assignment. Employer gets word that he isn't wanted back. Not fired, but has to be reassigned. Any one out there think it would be different if your IT guy was whining to the press about your operations? You call your local Indian contractor and have him replaced. Done.
9 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 3/29/2020 10:46:48 PM (No. 362451)
There are hosptials in LA that don't have enough ICU doctors to staff their ICU units 24/7. That isn't the blame of the hosital but of Hitlery Clinton and her landmark legislative achievement to limit training ICU docs (her excuse, we have too many doctors). I have little to no sympathy for some whinny arse wannabe snowflake. Some of us are sucking it up and it isn't easy. The place I worked was very proactive and prepared and we don't have anywhere near the PPE needed. And we planned and prepared! If one of my colleges pulled this crap, I don't know about the employer, but I would make sure he/she had nothing to do with patient care cause his/her whinny butt can't be trusted to do the right thing, just Beach! This is hard on docs and nurses in the ICU. Crybabies like this don't do a bit of good. I am thankful the docs in my hospital aren't crying over PPE but doing what it takes to care for some very sick people. Some people are more interested in having the paper stuff to protect themselves than to do the right thing! Oh, and my small state has more Covid deaths than almight Californistan!
9 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 3/29/2020 10:59:21 PM (No. 362457)
In general I'm skeptical about people who post their long list of complaints on social media and run to the local TV station. Do other medical workers share his concerns? Have any been infected? Are his complaints about insufficient supplies valid?
4 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
dirtyjersey 3/29/2020 11:05:00 PM (No. 362462)
The big hospital chains have not been good for patients. Just like trial lawyers, doctors are pushed to perform loads of tests and scans to rack up the bill.
Simple to understand fixed costs: if a hospital buys a $10m scanner, they assume a certain number of patients will go through it. If more go through, they make money. If fewer, they lose money.
Simple to understand variable costs: For every X additional patients, more doctors, PPE, nurses, laundry loads, etc are needed.
If all beds are filled like now, the only way to increase profits is to raise variable efficiency - i.e. don’t spend as much on each patient. So you wait longer to see a nurse, the food is not quite as good, the light bulbs don’t get replaced as quickly. And yes, the PPE is rationed. No one will admit it, but it happens. And someone is about to get their bonus.
6 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 3/29/2020 11:37:43 PM (No. 362483)
Forgive the second post. Hospital beds are down overall. All the elective, easy, quick profitable stuff has been stopped by the goobernment. Docs in many areas of medicine are very slow and hurting. However, the lesat profitable part of the hospital, ICUs are overwhelmed. Big hospital sytems may survive the loss of profitable admissions. Small rural hospital will be slaughteed. And regardless, most of the medical profession are not trained to handle ICU cases. So it comes down to a very few trained, ICU docs and how many we have. There are hsopitals in LA (Louisiana) that don't have enough ICU doctors to staff their ICU needs 24/7. So a nurse, not trained in ICU, may be taking care of folks in the ICU overnight. Its about lack of resource and the resource takes about 14 years to train. Not an overnight fix. And all thanks to years of goobernment putting abortion and illegals ahead of citizens.
7 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
monster 3/29/2020 11:39:33 PM (No. 362485)
David killed Goliath with a stone, the Chinese tried to kill us with a sneeze.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
pensom2 3/29/2020 11:41:51 PM (No. 362487)
There are usually at least two sides to these stories. We're hearing only one.
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Trigger2 3/30/2020 3:47:15 AM (No. 362561)
Dollars to donuts, the for-profit hospital is owned by demonrats who want to save every dollar for themselves.
1 person likes this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Timber Queen 3/30/2020 3:51:30 AM (No. 362562)
FTA: "Dr. Ming Lin worked at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center for 17 years until he was removed on Friday. (snip) Lin became a national avatar for frustrated health care professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak by speaking up in the press and on social media with pleas for more medical supplies and stronger standards to protect health care workers combating the virus."
Would it be "racist" to point out Dr. Ming Lin sounds like a Chinese name? Would it be "xenophobic" to question his motives in publicly criticizing the hospital's ability to PPE's to all immediately? Well, whether or not the answer is "yes" to those questions I can only say, "Dr. Ming Lin is a lying Commie B-tard plying the trade of enemy propagandist and enabled by our own Commie loving B-tard media."
#3 - God bless you and all your colleagues at the hospital, and across the country. My sister was a nurse for 46 years. She's chomping at the bit right now, but at 72 she's sitting at home with the rest of us "vulnerable". May God bless you and all with good results from the malaria medicine trials. With an effective treatment this could all be over very quickly.
3 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 3/30/2020 9:16:03 AM (No. 362734)
It is not professional to whine to the media.
This is not something this hospital is alone in dealing with. The right thing to do is to report the concern to hospital administration and to local task forces trying to manage the problem.
Some doctors are Prima Donnas and used to throwing their weight around inside a hospital. It creates an ugly environment to work in. Pushed out to the broader community in the midst of a crisis, it is dangerous and counter productive.
Problematic contract workers are often NOT rehired.
0 people like this.
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