Ms. PACS: What are your biggest fears about Thanksgiving – overeating and gaining a cool 5 lbs., choking on the wishbone or too much tryptophan sending you into a deep sleep all the way through RSNA?Source: USAToday.com
For 15% of Americans, according to a recent USA Today poll1 entitled ‘Turkey Trauma,’ their biggest Thanksgiving fear is cooking a turkey. In fact, many of them admit they avoid hosting Thanksgiving dinner altogther because of this deep-seeded phobia. Forty-three percent of those surveyed acknowledged that their anxiety stems from a fear of the turkey coming out too dry; 28% of the respondents shudder from the fear of serving it undercooked; others were turned off by touching or cleaning raw turkey (8%); while 6% worried it would taste bland or would come out burnt (6%).
Sound familiar? The fear part, that is. For radiologists, their big fear these days has to do with third-party-payers increasingly scrutinizing imaging costs. This could get even worse in a universal healthcare coverage scenario.
Among 200 radiologists who responded to a radiologist salary survey conducted in 2006 by a physician-recruiting firm LocumTenens.com2, “more than half (52%)…said universal healthcare would negatively affect their personal incomes.”
Their list of apprehensions related to government sponsored universal healthcare included:
- enormous costs
- questionable quality of care
- decreased salaries
- reduced reimbursement
- increased waiting times
- decreased access
- services eliminated
- practices closing
Surprisingly, a small group of respondents in that same survey had a brighter outlook (or they were ready to retire). These radiologists viewed universal healthcare as “the right thing to do” despite the effect on their income. While others took it one step further to point out that while it would reduce their income in the short term, a large portion of their practice is already 'no pay' and the overall effect would be helpful.
In either case, since the current system is not sustainable – what is really scary is to do nothing.
Two years later, in a 2008 annual diagnostic radiologist salary by the same firm, radiologists reported an average salary of $367,907.70, roughly a 7% increase over an average $343,330 for 2007! So, what’s with all of the Chicken Little pandemonium about the sky and radiologists’ salaries falling? Should we chalk it up to ‘Turkey Trauma’?
PACSman: Turkey trauma? Boy, talk about a slow news day. And to think I was going to razz my good friend the Dalai over his story about the boy in Stewart Florida being arrested for passing gas and disrupting his middle school classmates (http://doctordalai.blogspot.com/2008/11/you-are-safe-from-attack-in-stuart.html). I’m sure the Dalai didn’t seek this story out himself and no doubt received it as a “gift” from his teenaged son. Having two teen sons of my own I know how they love scatological humor and stories so….
As for turkey trauma…that usually only happens to people who live in the North and specifically you inner city Chicagoans. We Southerners typically deep fry our turkeys after injecting them with special herbs and spices and they come out perfectly cooked, tasty as all get out, and nice and juicy too…and since it’s fried in peanut oil its low calorie and contains no trans fatty acids either…
Now I can’t help those who have toupkiaphobia (fear of turkeys) any more than I can help radiologists overcome their Xenophobia (fear of the unknown). We all have our apprehensions….and the best way to overcome them is to face them head on. After all, the reality is there isn’t much you can do about it anyway so…
I’m also not sure all radiologists share your Spike Lee approach in finding that universal healthcare is the right thing to do. Those must be the rads who are ready to retire – and since the Dalai has 1,862 days left as of the writing of this I know he’s not part of that group – but I’ve always supported those who subscribe to the philosophy of lead, follow, or get out of the way. Those who take action to increase their volume, even though it requires additional work, will survive. That includes those facilities who are PACS-less, who now buy PACS to improve the overall productivity of the facility from techs to rads. Those who don’t, won’t. It’s just that simple. “No pays” goes with the territory and are prevalent in every industry. Even I have had my share of no pays…and all you can do is shrug and move on…and vow never to trust again…..even if you do…
I know a few rads – very few – that make the kind of money you listed there, but not many, especially in these times. And that might be gross salary (including profit sharing), but it sure as hell isn’t net…at least not for the rads that I know well…
So will salaries fall? Probably very little, although it’s a given that most will have to do more work to maintain the same income level for sure. No one also knows what will happen with malpractice insurance, etc…A much bigger threat to the radiologist livelihood is offshore readings. I can see it now….”Hello my name is Rajiv and I will be your radiologist today…". Olive Garden radiology lives… Of course the ACR and other groups need to start addressing this, but.…so far they have been pretty silent on it all…
So is it turkey trauma? Nope…It’s called reality….Yet even with all we have to worry about, we have even more to be thankful for…so let’s not lose sight of that…even as this Florida boy freezes his turkey feathers off in Chicago for the 26th year in a row…or is it 27th?
See you there!!!
1. Turkey Trauma. USAToday.com. http://www.usatoday.com/news/snapshot.htm?section=L&label=2008-11-24-trauma
2. 2006 Radiologist Salary and Employment Survey.
http://www.locumtenens.com/radiology-careers/2006-LT-Radiologist-Salary-Survey.aspx
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