As the number of healthcare companies grows and as health systems operate more and more as corporations, doctors in the leadership of these for-profit and not-for-profit corporations have grown in number. Some healthcare organizations are led by physician CEOs and others have doctors in other leadership roles such as chief medical officer.
When a doctor becomes an officer of a corporation—they take on another set of obligations altogether. Though not codified in anything as well-defined as an “oath,” there is the basic expectation that an officer of a corporation will always act in the best interest of the company. This edict usually means they will do what is necessary to deliver a profit.
And perhaps this shallowly resolved tension is why we have a healthcare system that that seem devoid of any real consideration for patients despite the visible presence of doctors in leadership. Sizable copays that put a barrier between patients and life-sustaining medicines like insulin. Utilization management protocols that routinely put inferior outdated treatments ahead of better new ones. The never-ending rush to discharge patients, often before they are ready.