Comments on: Is the physician shortage expanding to gastroenterology? http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/01/is-physician-shortage-expanding-to.html Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:56:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: Toni Brayer MDhttp://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/01/is-physician-shortage-expanding-to.html#comment-89195 Toni Brayer MD Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:18:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2009/01/is-the-physician-shortage-expanding-to-gastroenterology.html#comment-89195 Screening colonoscopies should be performed by trained midlevels. Shortage goes away, GI docs are back evaluating patients, taking call and following up on abnormalities, as they should be. This procedure focused, boondoggle should come to an end. Screening colonoscopies should be performed by trained midlevels. Shortage goes away, GI docs are back evaluating patients, taking call and following up on abnormalities, as they should be. This procedure focused, boondoggle should come to an end.

]]> By: Anonymoushttp://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/01/is-physician-shortage-expanding-to.html#comment-89191 Anonymous Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:22:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2009/01/is-the-physician-shortage-expanding-to-gastroenterology.html#comment-89191 Ditto Anon 7:22. Kaiser already proved that supervised nurses can do routine low-risk colonoscopies just as well as fellowship-trained gastroenterologists.<br/><br/>And guess what? "Fellowship-trained" sure sounds impressive, but the hands-on time in the endoscopy suite is 1-1.5 years. That's it. Pretty easy to provide the same to non-MDs.<br/><br/>If gastroenterologists are relying on the dearth-of-colonoscopist argument to protect their inflated reimbursements, they will lose. Ditto Anon 7:22. Kaiser already proved that supervised nurses can do routine low-risk colonoscopies just as well as fellowship-trained gastroenterologists.

And guess what? “Fellowship-trained” sure sounds impressive, but the hands-on time in the endoscopy suite is 1-1.5 years. That’s it. Pretty easy to provide the same to non-MDs.

If gastroenterologists are relying on the dearth-of-colonoscopist argument to protect their inflated reimbursements, they will lose.

]]> By: Anonymoushttp://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/01/is-physician-shortage-expanding-to.html#comment-89189 Anonymous Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:22:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2009/01/is-the-physician-shortage-expanding-to-gastroenterology.html#comment-89189 We don't need fellowship trained gastroenterologists to do colonoscopies. Surgeons and a few family physicians also do these and, with proper training, even midlevels could do these. We don’t need fellowship trained gastroenterologists to do colonoscopies. Surgeons and a few family physicians also do these and, with proper training, even midlevels could do these.

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