On Feb. 5, hundreds of healthcare workers shared on Twitter the one thing they want to request from their chief medical officers.
"You have a meeting with the CMO of your hospital. You get 1 request and the administration has to make it happen. What is your request? You can't ask for more money. Anything else is fair game," ophthalmologist Will Flanary, MD — also known by his online persona Dr. Glaucomflecken — tweeted.
Eleven responses:
1. Tatiana Prowell, MD. Associate Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (Baltimore): "Administrative busywork is dramatically curtailed so that every clinician gets to work at the top of their license 90+% of the time."
2. Chris Friese, PhD, RN. Nursing Professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (Ann Arbor): "Systematically identify and remove wasteful administrative work. See: https://t.co/BkF4uD2ik4."
3. Rob Davidson, MD. Emergency Physician for Emergency Care Specialists (Grand Rapids, Mich.): "Can I ask for more money for the nurses? Recruitment and retention of great nurses would fix so many of the problems with which we are dealing."
4. Alok Patel, MD. Pediatrician in New York City: "CMO has to make a detailed video explaining why they deserve their salary. After the ridiculousness, a reckoning will come."
5. Shoa Clarke, MD, PhD. Preventive Cardiologist and Instructor at Stanford University School of Medicine (Palo Alto, Calif.): "All C suite execs must be practicing MDs with some minimum hospital service requirement."
6. Kusha Davar, MD. Assistant Fellowship Director of LAC and USC Infectious Diseases Division (Los Angeles): "Boba vending machine."
7. Monica McLemore PhD, RN. Associate Nursing Professor at UCSF (San Francisco): "The resignation of the CMO and abolishing of the position."
8. Tanya Selak. Specialist Anesthetist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (Australia): "Childcare."
9. Daniel Messiha, MD. Clinical Scientist at University Hospital Essen (Germany): "Nurses/Doctors to patients ratio is determined solely by healthcare workers actively working at bedside and not by controlling/administration. This will solve so many problems."
10. William Blythe, MD. Otolaryngologist in Opelika, Ala.: "Inverse the nursing pay scale such that bedside nurses get paid orders of magnitude more than those that carry charts or have administrative duties. Reward longevity."
11. David Van Winkle, MD. Former Chief Medical Officer at Mercy Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.): "An RN to partner with every primary care physician in clinic[s] to collaborate around assessments, teaching, medication refills, etc. Make Primary care a true team sport."
Editor's note: This article was updated Feb. 13 at 12:37 p.m. CT.