[minimuffins]

Learning about new ways that our medical industry is totally dysfunctional is baffling and infuriating. It seems to be an inexhaustible well of misery for workers and patients alike. These conditions are like something out of a 19th century factory town. One more way the US healthcare system is a ridiculous anachronism.

My first questions are

1) Is sleep deprivation and the generally toxic work culture for doctors and healthcare workers a uniquely American thing? Like does a doctor in Denmark or the UK or Mexico have such a brutal work regime?

2) What's the solution to this? I'm inclined to think healthcare workers have to organize themselves to oppose it and demand new policies because who else will? It seems no one in hospital administrations, regulatory bodies or government has any incentive to push for change here, in fact they're doing the opposite by expanding allowed hours worked.

[user5994461]

1) It seems pretty bad in France too, judging from the few friends I have in medicine.

2) Like everywhere else. Do your hours and leave. If the business fails, too bad for it.

[trowawee]

The problem is that doctors are never going to organize against this, because A) most have been thoroughly inculcated in a culture that worships that kind of work ethic and B) the limited number of physicians is the reason they make absurd amounts of money. The median ER doc in SF makes $328,047[1], and ER's a relatively low-paying specialty. The solution is regulation with teeth, similar to the rules governing pilots.

[1]: http://www1.salary.com/CA/San-Francisco/ER-Doctor-Salary.htm...

[arikrak]

I wonder what would happen if instead of adding more regulations, they took away some of the power that medical schools have in restricting people from practicing medicine. E.g. nurse practitioners and physician assistants sound like a step in the right direction.