“HIPAA patient privacy laws…”

They aren’t laws, they are rule/regulations, implemented by bureaucrats. This is a group separate from congress, but easily confused, as both groups are equally ampled-buttocked, supercilious, and solipsistic.

If anything, speaking my mind (including saying the occasional “bad word”) and signing my name (which means I am a little more conscious of what I’m typing before I hit “enter”) has kept me IN medcine – rather than running screaming from it.

If I did not have the outlet, I’d probably have given up on a lot of things long ago.

Time and blogging has also, in its way, vindicated the cluster-screw I endured in my own hometown – and under the disinterested noses of federal & state oversight agencies. People/previous clueless (i.e. kept-in-the-dark) locals are following my story – and I believe that sooner or later I will see justice done.

Of course, I am on a “mission” of sorts. I do not blog about current assignments or cases (with perhaps one or two very vague exceptions – more related to politics than patient care).

If more doctors were doing this kind of thing, perhap “reform” would be reform we as doctors could ultimately live with. But as I see it, everybody is scared to death – afraid to lose what they have.

As for me, when you’ve already lost what you wanted most, it does not matter so much.