Physician interest in unions on the rise

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem.news.service1 at gmail.com
Sun Sep 18 21:41:01 PDT 2016


       

 

August 19, 2016

 

Physician interest in unions on the rise

 

 

 
<http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/physician-interest-unions-rise?ut
m_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&mrkid=905528&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWXpGbU5HUmlZV1l
3T1RFMiIsInQiOiJtd0hVZk1lcnlnVEpKZ2JId1NJNElua0ZmVVpkS2FWbGNHRURjS0dqRUhERFR
oTE9vXC9RRThPUW13aTVMZGNXQnNCYWRaZU5QQ1lvSUQ5a0UxSDhwQ3pIT2xoQ25vOWRpa3pSemR
zZXVVdm89In0%3D> Fierce Healthcare

 

 

By Matt Kuhrt

 

As more and more doctors leave private practice for employment at healthcare
organizations, interest in unions has inevitably followed, according to an
article in Medscape, though questions remain about their ultimate utility
for physicians seeking to stand up to management.

 

Unionization's appeal to doctors who find themselves ceding what used to be
an autonomous profession to administrations with which they find themselves
at odds makes sense, says Frank Proscia, M.D., president of the Doctors
Council union, which represents around 4,000 physicians and dentists. He
reports fielding an increasing number of questions from doctors interested
in establishing unions because "one doctor speaking up against management is
not going to be heard."

 

The realities of medical practice have made unions a less than perfect fit
to date, however. Physicians in Oregon unionized in order to resist an
initiative that aimed to outsource their system's hospitalists. While
successful, Medscape points out that the subsequent negotiations between the
union and the healthcare system took nearly two years to hammer out.

 

The nature of medical practice and doctors' responsibilities to their
patients complicate the effectiveness of physician unions. As much as
doctors may clash with management, a majority of them look to become
employed in order to avoid dealing with the administrative hassles of
running a business, as FiercePracticeManagement has previously reported. In
addition, a lot of the leverage unions hold over management comes from the
threat of a strike, an action that arguably poses a danger to patients or
that could ultimately backfire, causing patients to blame doctors for their
inconvenience, rather than the situation the doctors are protesting,
according to the article.

 

In the end, the solution may involve a new model of physician unions that
caters to doctors' specific needs and de-emphasizes striking, says Stuart A.
Bussey, M.D., J.D., president of the Union of American Physicians and
Dentists. 

 

 

 

Jeff Wells
Deputy Editor, CAL/AAEM News Service

 

Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editor, CAL/AAEM News Service



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