| Dr. Robert Midgley |
| Dr. Robert Midgley Willing to Use Punitive Measure Should Patient Ask Questions - Questions Considered Hostile Sacramento, California |
| 2nd of Jul, 2011 by User408437 |
| Doctor Robert Midgley who resides in the Med Legal section of Kaiser Permanente, South Sacramento has been reported to me to be a physician not to be trusted. As a nurse myself, it appalls me that such people are allowed to impact patient care. Not only will he change his mind about an important medical situation for political rather than scientific reasons, but he will act upon that change in any punitive way he has the power to effect. That would include cutting patients off from vital health contacts, that is, contacts with physicians within the Kaiser HMO (in which he works) that a patient is depending upon for health maintenance. It is the politically motivated inconsistency of this person that makes him so dangerous. He will in an instant support the poor judgment of other physicians in order to preserve his position within his HMO, Kaiser Permanente. So long as there are no administrators or colleagues depending upon him to support them in an anti-patient action, Dr. Midgley will attempt to assist a patient in pain. However, Lord help a patient in pain if that patient is requesting medical reasons for physician recommendations, and the attending physician has none, appealing to MedLegal to threaten patient with cutoffs of various kinds if the patient will not "shut up." Dr. Midgely is also known to be quite a hypocrite when it comes to supporting a "friend" in trouble within the organization. So long as his "friend" does not require his support versus a superior who could harm Dr. Midgley politically, Dr. Midgley is all smiles. However, request his help in any other situation, and smiles turn to cold, blank stares reign, and Dr. Midgley is more plastic than flesh. This kind of physician is the bane of the medical profession, and is an all too common me-first personality represented within the medical profession. Give a person a modicum of power, and soon, too soon, that power often turns to arrogance. Our medical doctors in the United States have been pampered far too long. The Dr. Midgley's of the profession need to be removed. |
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This doctor is a sad example of a person compromising principle in order to support a medical colleague with bad to horrendous judgment.
The sad thing is that just 36 months ago, Dr. Midgley vociferously and energetically recommended one course of action in order to save an elderly patient from an abusive physician who wished to change a regimen that had been shielding the patient from intense pain due to a severely deteriorating skeletal condition.
However, this time, since an abusive colleague is involved, a political affirmative action appointment at that, Midgely is perfectly willing to use his office to punish the patient for rejecting his colleague's recommendations.
Rejecting recommendations, especially ones that are made for reasons other than medical necessity, is a patient's right. The amazing thing is that Midgley is actually supporting medical tyranny by allowing a dangerous uncontrolled withdrawal from a medically necessary regimen. Such support from his office in Med Legal, South Sacramento, is not only a violation of the Hippocratic Oath, but has both civil and potentially criminal consequences.
The test of a principled person is how he or she performs under fire. Watching Dr. Midgley from a healthy distance, my opinion is that this doctor sorely lacks what it takes to practice medicine in the image of the great medical icons of the past. |
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Unfortunately, this fellow, not being a first rate physician, has chosen to lower himself further by working with lawyers.
At least he could salvage something by being patient oriented, but, I suppose his lack of personal insight in areas like charity, mercy, and the alleviation of pain, makes him an ideal candidate to add to the disease from which our society suffers.
The famous Permanente employment contract is a tool that Dr. Midgley salivates over. Just think if all our personal errors could be hidden under a tarpaulin of confidentiality.
There never was a lawyer alive who wouldn't love the Permanente employment contract. Kill or maim a patient. No problem. Other doctors can't talk about it. After all, medical records are confidential you know. |
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I only know of this physician as a result of a friend's interface. From what I can gather, he is a weak individual willing to sway with the breeze. This may be why he has joined a legal effort rather than practicing medicine.
Whatever the case, by reputation, I wouldn't count on this person to back your play as a friend if he might lose in any way by doing so.
A friend one minute, and a knife in your back the next. Not surprising considering the atmosphere in pre-med and medical school. Those folks spend years feeling good about themselves and tripping each other to get an edge. |
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Let me share with you a real experience I had with Kaiser Permanente that may shed some light on Dr. Midgley's behavior.
It is true that he could have been so much more proactive, as I understand was the case at another time.
However, in my case, when I had a problem, as soon as it was escalated any distance at all up the chain of command, I received a contact from an attorney ordering me not to contact anyone at Kaiser to solve my problem.
In other words, the attorney wanted me not to contact the very people who had the power to solve the problem.
Lucky for me, I ignored the attorney. He kept threatening me, if I didn't stop trying to solve the problem, and I kept ignoring him.
Finally, I found a fellow working in the chain of command with a heart, and the problem was solved.
My point here is that I think a lot of the problems created at Kaiser Permanente are due to bad advice from lawyers.
They really don't want to solve the problems, especially if they are paid on a billable hour basis as this attorney was above. I know that because he worked for a private firm under contract with Kaiser.
That is what is called a HUGE conflict of interest.
So, in this case, as soon as Midgley refused to take care of the problem at his level, and as soon as a contract attorney was consulted, this whole situation was lost, IF the chain of command wasn't strong enough to tell the lawyer to go to hell, which evidently they weren't.
No longer was an amicable solution possible, since the attorney's advice would almost surely be to be silent and let the problem fester.
I can still remember this lawyer threatening me over and over again about not trying to solve the problem out of court. It was such an evil message, and I think we have lots of that in America.
I am a Japanese citizen, and have relatives in Japan. They were thinking about expanding their law schools a while back, and the reason that was defeated was that they didn't want to have lawyers ruining their culture as they do in the United States. How many speeches I heard in Japan saying things like, "Do you want to be like the United States with greedy lawyers by the millions trying to stir up trouble." Of course, the people of Japan didn't want that. (By comparison, the US has one lawyer for every 265 citizens. Japan has one lawyer for every 10, 000 citizens. And, every lawyer in American thinks he or she should be rich. What a mess!)
So what I am saying is that Dr. Midgley probably had a chance to solve the problem early on, but after a short while, Kaiser contract lawyers would have simply told everyone who had taken the Hippocratic Oath to shut off communication.
Of course, that's the worst possible advice. It just begs for more conflict when one side is being given terrible advice. But there it is.
You want to take a shot at real evil, I can give you the name and firm representing Kaiser that, had I listened to them, we would probably still be in court. As it was, the problem was solved at the physician level, where it should have been all along. |
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