bethcharette
Sacramento,#2Consumer Comment
Fri, July 08, 2011
You know how it goes in life. We succeed, and then people want to award
us with more responsibility, sometimes making things uncomfortable for
us.
In some ways that what has happened to Dr. Robert Pearl.
Take a very good physician, and then have someone make the mistake of
thinking because he is a good physician, he would be a great leader, and
you have the potential for real suffering.
I am not surprised to see this material about Dr. Robert.
In my opinion, it would be as much out of character for him to intervene
in the world of an aggressive colleague, no matter how bad her
violations, as it would be for him to root against his undergraduate
school's teams.
It's just not something he can or would do.
So, I can fully understand why he didn't help an elderly patient suffering at the hands of his Sacramento leadership team.
I don't think Dr. Robert would 1) Have a clue how to do it; and, 2) Be
willing to oppose either his team in place OR especially Kaiser lawyers
who, first and foremost, shut down communication with patients in
trouble, rather than trying to communicate in an attempt to help them.
Is it an evil system in which Dr. Robert is trapped? I think so. We are
talking about billions of dollars in revenue. And, whenever that much
money exists, and the power that goes along with it, all but the most
aggressive people tend to just be quiet, go about their business, and,
if a few people expire in the meantime, well, that's the way society has
evolved at the big medicine table.