Political Quotes

“I would like to thank the chairman and the ranking member. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe) that I too had 100-, 120-hour workweeks and months; and I was the scut, of course, during my internships and residency; so I understand the words that you have spoken. I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 4150, the Department of Veterans Affairs Emergency Medical Staffing Recruitment and Retention Act. The point is this, and it is very simple: the VA needs to provide high-quality care that is veteran-centered. That is why I introduced this bill which works to address the difficulty of recruiting and retaining the best physicians to work within the VA healthcare system. The problem is that, by law, the VA is beholden to the bureaucratic OPM's 80-biweekly requirement for full-time physicians. This does not fit with the current practice of physicians in many specialties, including emergency medicine and hospital medicine. These specialties typically require more flexible, often irregular working hours--some weeks they work less; some weeks they work the triple amount--but it needs to fit their schedule in order for them to provide the best care that they can for the patient. Also, for instance, in emergency departments, it has been studied that the most dangerous time for a patient is during shift changes when a patient's care is transferred to another doctor.…”