Show Me The Money!!!!!

About two years ago our department started staffing two physicians on for 12 hours a day. The volume of patients was just too much for one physician to handle. Plus if you get one critically ill patient they can tie up the doctor for very long periods of time, leading to an even bigger backlog.

One of the duties of the new team is to work together while doing reductions. A reduction is something that is done for someone who has broken a bone or dislocated a joint that needs to be put back into place. We sedate them with Propofol...better known as the medication that aided in the demise of Michael Jackson...yank the body part back into alignment and presto!...a cast and you're on your way. In the olden days...i.e. 18 months ago...nurses were smart enough to draw up and administer the drugs used for these procedures. That suddenly stopped 18 months ago. Now that there are two physicians on, it has become necessary to pull the 2nd doc who could be productively seeing patients, to take the drugs the nurse has drawn up and administer it. And, of course, they get to bill the government for it!

So what I want to know is - where is my money for all the times that I was the "anesthetist"?