DON'T FAULT DOCTORS FOR HEALTH COSTS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 23, 1992                   TAG: 9202240204
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
DON'T FAULT DOCTORS FOR HEALTH COSTS
ROBERT DOSS (letter, Feb. 9) would have us believe that the entire health-care dilemma rests on the salaries physicians earn. There are many places to lay the blame for the escalating cost of health care, but please do not fault our physicians.
Granted, no monetary value may be placed on human lives, but I invite Mr. Doss to spend eight hours with one of the emergency-room physicians I work with. Let him decide if the split-second decisions that must be made regarding the life and death for a patient are worth that physician's salary, cost of education and years of schooling.
Did Mr. Doss also read the recent article regarding the salaries some of our very own hospital administrators earn? I dare say there are a few administrators who earn more than some physicians. Does this seem fair? I think not. Whose job has the most responsibility?
I can certainly understand why Mr. Doss would be upset by a bill for $200 for five pills. I would be the first to agree that some of the hospital and physician charges are outrageous. But physicians alone do not set hospitals' charges. Mr. Doss should question the insurance companies.
I am a registered nurse, and I do appreciate what Mr. Doss states regarding nurses' work and salaries. But my salary is not based on the quality of care I give to my patients or on the nurses I am associated with.
Unless we find solutions to the growing problems, affordable health care will be a thing of the past. TRENA S. BOUDREAUX BOONES MILL

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB