The "other" side of my job...

One of the things that I think is great about the Health Administration program at VCU is that they really try to expose us to the actual medical side of medicine. Too often, health administration programs - and sadly, many hospital administrators - forget that medicine actually happens in hospitals.

A blog post by Dr. Schwab over at Surgeonsblog really moved me the other day. Physicians are given a bad rap with healthcare administrators because they are usually mad at us for not giving them something (which typically would help our patients) or we are mad at them because they won't change to help us. That's really not the M.O. of most physcians, it's just that administrators are exposed to that most often. I'd bet that even those of you not in the healthcare field forget what it takes to be a physician most days. For some really interesting reading, I'd recommend you check out the book Complications. I'm sure you'll be surprised.

But for now, just check out Dr. Schawb's post. The most telling part of the whole thing:

There's something completely wrong about a tiny baby on a big table in a huge OR. I could cover the entire person with my two hands. All the machinery, the tools, the drapes, the surrounding team seem terrifyingly outsized. It's like a joke. We're playing dolls. Except it's real and the stakes are high.