Well-trained and skilled healthcare workers and clinicians are needed to practice high-quality medicine. Systemic under-staffing of nurses, technicians, phlebotomists, respiratory therapists, patient transporters, unit coordinators, environmental services workers, and many more is the Corporate Practice of Medicine. Unfortunately, when physicians do not own their own practices, and are silenced from speaking out, corporations including hospitals can under-staff for purposes of maximizing their own profits.
Dr. Ming Lin, an emergency physician, was working at the closest hospital to the twin towers in New York City on September 11th, 2001. Nearly two decades later, he was working in an ER in Washington State, just as Washington became the first hot-spot for the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2001, the system worked. Physicians and healthcare staff rallied. The department was cleared out and readied for a mass casualty incident. In 2020, Ming Lin spoke out to protect the nurses and staff from unnecessary exposure to the new virus. For his advocacy, he was removed from the schedule by the private-equity staffing firm TeamHealth and the hospital system, PeaceHealth.
Dr. Lin continues to fight, filing a wrongful termination lawsuit - in order to change this. Physicians need to be able to speak out to protect their patients and advocate for other healthcare workers without losing their jobs.
Physicians see patients suffer when hospitals cut staffing for profit. We can not practice medicine without you. Take Medicine Back supports calls for safe staffing ratios by nursing organizations, such as National Nurses United. Only California has legislated safe staffing ratios to date.
Brendan Ballou, author of "Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America" and a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice was the keynote speaker at the 2024 Take Medicine Back summit co-hosted with the California American Academy of Emergency Medicine. His book does not shy away from the corporate practice of Veterinary Medicine. At Take Medicine Back, we believe that the professions must band together and reclaim our professionalism from corporate interests. Dentists, veterinarians, and more are welcome to join the fight!
Take Medicine Back is about taking the profession of medicine back from corporate interests.
But the role of the profession of medicine is to serve patients and society, which requires a robust, well-trained, ethical healthcare workforce. If you are an individual, an allied profession, or a healthcare worker of any type that supports Take Medicine Back mission, we will soon be launching the Take Medicine Back Alliance.
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