Failing To Refer A Patient To A Specialist: Using Birth Injuries As An Example

This may sound silly, but it is true.  Some doctors do not want to refer a patient to another healthcare provider because the doctor wants to get credit for treatment.  This is particularly true in hospitals where doctors—whether with privileges or as an attending—are being constantly reviews and checked to ensure they are working efficiently.  Their “numbers” are checked to see the number of patients treated, surgeries performed, and other tasks done to make money for the hospital to justify the doctor’s insurance and paycheck.

This is particularly done a lot in the OB/GYN and family care specialties for deliveries of babies.  Doctors want to get credit for a baby’s delivery and do not want to give it to another doctor to do and get credit for.  For example, a family care practitioner will do everything he or she can do to deliver a baby before calling in an OB/GYN to perform the delivery just to get credit for the delivery.

However, sometimes an OB/GYN is needed to delivery the baby.  This could be where the baby must be delivered by c-section, which the family practitioner cannot do, but the family practitioner will not get credit for if the OB/GYN performs the surgery.  Therefore, the family doctor may have the mother start pushing or try to deliver a baby that clearly cannot come without a c-section.

This becomes dangerous for the mother and the baby, all so the family doctor can get credit for the delivery.  Dangerous!  Dumb actually!

Why risk so many lives just for a number?  Because a poor outcome becomes a number in the WRONG column.

Unfortunately, this happens all too often and many babies are very seriously injured or even killed due to a family doctor’s zealous calculus to justify his or her pay.