Re:The Problem of Doctors’ Salaries
by chimeracoder on Wednesday November 22, 2017 @10:51AM
(#15757688)
> Well the alternate is capacity. They only have so many doctors on staff to supervise which limits the slots. Think of it as a management problem.
First: residents are doctors.
Second: Yes, they ratio of residents to attendings is fixed, by law, as is the number of hours that they're allowed to work per week. Both of those were fixed because we found that working residents 100-120 hours/week and without enough attendings resulted in mistakes and people dying.
Since this ratio is fixed, it means that hiring 4 more residents also means hiring an additional attending, and you only get an additional 320 resident-hours/week from them. It turns out that this isn't profitable, because if it were, more hospitals would do it.
Re:The Problem of Doctors’ Salaries
by sjg007 on Wednesday November 22, 2017 @12:16PM
(#15758482)
Yes, obviously, residents are doctors. By "doctors on staff" I meant supervising doctor. The phrase "on staff" usually means permanent staff vs the residents who are temporary.
First: residents are doctors.
Second: Yes, they ratio of residents to attendings is fixed, by law, as is the number of hours that they're allowed to work per week. Both of those were fixed because we found that working residents 100-120 hours/week and without enough attendings resulted in mistakes and people dying.
Since this ratio is fixed, it means that hiring 4 more residents also means hiring an additional attending, and you only get an additional 320 resident-hours/week from them. It turns out that this isn't profitable, because if it were, more hospitals would do it.