Abstract

Working as a physician has always been a stressful occupation. It starts with the competition of getting into medical school, then comes the non-relentless time demands of dedication, study, hazing, and on call fatigue throughout medical training, and then the never ending demands of clinical practice in today’s complex high pressure medical environment. We have all gone through it and the majority of us make it through recognizing the price we had to pay for becoming a physician. It’s always been that way. Then about 20 years ago things began to change. Medicine became a business and dollars seemed to overtrump quality. The Government and private insurance companies introduced contract based “managed” care and implemented a series of utilization controls “telling” physicians what they can and cannot do.