It seems that that even the most skeptical and iconoclastic health care bloggers may also be fearful of being too politically incorrect.
In this post on the Carlat Psychiatry Blog, David Carlat nick-named Dr Charles Nemeroff "Bling Bling" for the extent of his relationships with the pharmaceutical industry. Carlat soon had to retreat, after being taken to task by one of the editors of his own Carlat Psychiatry Report for being "too personal," apologizing, "I was trying to be humorous, but I'll admit these [writings] come across as mean."
Today, this post on the Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry Blog showed that "Bling Bling" was not an exaggeration. (Nemeroff has also come in for criticism on Health Care Renewal, here, here and here.) But even then, the anonymous Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry blogger worried, "how is a blogger to be entertaining, stick to the facts, and bring important information to readers without crossing the line into being offensive? I don't know."
Yet, in health care, in my humble opinion, the problem is not too many bullying bloggers calling people offensive names. The problem, instead, is a general fear of saying something even the least bit negative about the powers that be, even when the powers that be have done awful things.
Carlat's quick retraction of what amounted to mild sarcasm, and the Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry bloggers fear of being "offensive" are the latest demonstrations that the "anechoic effect" is alive and well in health care.
The term, first coined by Dr Russell Maulitz, describes how even the most vivid cases of mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and even corruption in health care seem to produce no echoes. Two important historical examples that have come up on Health Care Renewal include:
- Cooper Hospital - University Medical Center. In the 1990s, this case featuring briefcases filled with cash, a hospital trustee convicted of murder, and the embezzlement of over $21 million. Yet despite these lurid details, it seemed to get no notice outside of local newspapers. See post here, and details here (starting on page 3).
- Allegheny Health Education and Research Foundation (AHERF) - The CEO of this, one of the first large vertically integrated health care systems, including the US' largest health care university at the time, was called a "visionary," and gave the prestigious John D Cooper lecture at the 1996 AAMC meeting. Meanwhile, he paid himself and his top managers huge salaries (for the time), and threatened his faculty, "don't cross me or you will live to regret it." The health care system eventually went bankrupt, the then second largest bankruptcy in US history, and the CEO went to jail. Yet, excepting what I have written, this case generated only one article in the health care and medical literature. See post here with citations and links.
And there have been numerous recent cases, e.g.,
- HRDI - An organization set up by 30+ CEOs of some of the US leading hospitals, which charged a stiff fee for prospective vendors to get access to them. It was shut down in a legal settlement, which prompted the Connecticut Attorney General to call the organization, "an anticompetitive, secret society." Yet the story never appeared in most of the hospitals' home towns, much less any medical journals. (See post here.)
- Guidant - A device manufacturer which recently was accused of suppressing data about failures of its implantable cardiac defibrillators, and previously pleaded guilty to suppressing data about failures of a vascular graft product. Yet a featured interview of its CEO in a leading health policy journal avoided discussing any of this recent unpleasantness. (See post here.)
- University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) - Now the largest US health care university, the university now is operating under a federal deferred prosecution agreement under the supervision of a federal monitor (see most recent posts here, here, here, here and here.) We had previously discussed allegations that UMDNJ had offered no-bid contracts, at times requiring no work, to the politically connected; had paid for lobbyists and made political contributions, even though UMDNJ is a state institution; and seemed to be run by political bosses rather than health care professionals. (See posts here, and here, with links to previous posts.) A recent development (see post here with links to previous posts) was that UMDNJ apparently gave paid part-time faculty positions to some community cardiologists in exchange for their referrals to the University's cardiac surgery program, but not in exchange for any major academic responsibilities. Another was some amazingly wasteful decisions by UMDNJ managers leading to spending millions of dollars for real-estate that now stands vacant (see post here). Another was the indictment of a powerful NJ politician for getting a no-work job in the system, and the indictment of the former dean of the university's osteopathic medicine school for giving him the job (see post here). Yet none of this has appeared in the medical or health care literature.
Try a Google search for the "anechoic effect" and "hcrenewal" to see some other examples.
Yet, local media do not hesitate to report individual physicians disciplined by their state medical boards. Such discipline is on the public record (e.g., here, for my state of RI). Physicians are frequently sued for malpractice. The media run scary stories about medical errors and overpaid physicians.
But when the CEO of one of the country's biggest hospital systems goes to jail, or the biggest health care university in the country agrees to a deferred prosecution agreement, physicians don't talk or write about it.
Carlat's apology for awarding the "Bling Bling" nickname, and Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry's fear of being "offensive" suggests how fearful we are of saying anything even mildly negative about the powers that be in health care.
As Aubrey Blumsohn put it, "the desire to maintain decorum and status in medicine seems also to overwhelm all standards of decency. Our profession is inclined to fixate on the irrelevant while ignoring some very bad things. Does civility matter? In the words of David Kern: When you're in an argument with a thug, there are things much more important than civility. I do not like incivility. Yet, I like thugs even less."
If we can't even talk about mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and corruption in health care, how are we ever going to fix these problems?
3 comments:
Yep, don't use insenstive words to the people who, in effect, directly destroy healthcare and indirectly kill people as a result.
Don't want to hurt their feelings.
As a business person I am always surprised at how doctor's are unwilling to confront the real issues in health care. We are often criticized for raising red flags at cost and are very concerned at precedent. With 16% of GDP going to health care, the largest in the world, many of us feel there is enough money in the system, the problem is distribution.
We do not have to look far to see problems with the drug industry, yet doctors do not call for the elimination of DTC advertising, or other steps, that could make their lives easier and reduce cost. Many of us see proposed vaccination mandates as marketing ploys, and when we question the fact that the proposed mandate covers a group not part of the clinical trial, we are bluntly told we do not have the expertise to pass judgment.
Doctors complain about access to health care, but do not speak out about excessive pay for hospital administrators. The AMA sells doctor information to the drug industry.
Only when the various medical societies take a stand, and change the behaviors of their members, will we see changes that will benefit both doctors and their patients.
Steve Lucas
Um, you miss the obvious ... these large institutions and their management control a vast amount of money being spent on advertising. If a newspaper says anything bad, they risk losing a big advertisng account.
That is how things remain hush-hush. That along with the campaign contributions....
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