Flying across country has occasionally led to a worrisome plea from the flight deck, requesting doctor assistance for a fellow passenger. Of the several times I have stepped forward, others have identified themselves, leading to a quick check of credentials as to who had the best expertise to provide care. I’ve had a psychiatrist, rheumatologist and gynecologist acknowledge my greater experience in these times of duress.

Likewise, running a hospital is no easy chore, and I acknowledge those who have the expertise in keeping Henry Mayo Hospital’s doors open. Being in my fourth year on the Medical Executive Committee, I have come to respect many doctor decisions that are made to provide quality patient care, especially to our elder seniors.

As a geriatric internist, I am one of two dozen or so primary care physicians who admit patients to our hospital. Being on the front line, there are multiple decision-making factors involved in providing good care, which allows patients to be treated, then return home.

This is not haphazard, nor does it come by happenstance. Managing the medical well-being of patients is a honed skill, attributable to years of education and experience learned by every one of my professional colleagues.

That is why I call your attention to the egregious assault waged by the Henry Mayo Hospital administration against admitting primary care doctors. Unlike other physicians who are specialists or not directly involved in patient care, they anonymously, and with muffled voices, face a gauntlet in their daily grind.

Computer-based information has allowed hospitals to gather statistics on all aspects of function. Some are mandated from agencies forcing standards of medical care to be maintained. Unfortunately, these numbers are sometimes used by Henry Mayo administrators to manipulate or malign physicians.

Specifically, the hospital created a statistic counting the number of extra days over the Medicare DRG (diagnosis-related group) a patient remained in the hospital. For example, if a heart attack patient had a DRG of four days but stays in the hospital seven days, the three additional days they attributed to the doctor. Then it was claimed that each day was worth $1,000, and reinterpreted as $3,000 “lost” from the hospital.

Every admitting primary care physician was given a total dollar amount (e.g., 112 days equaled $112,000), claiming now the doctor was responsible for this “lost” money. It was used to be reflective of “bad doctoring” as it went to the board of directors.

Over the years, this administration has slurred the image of our medical staff physicians, saying, “they are the worst behaved in the nation,” but now they also manipulate statistics and conjure false information to create an illusion of poor doctoring.

As physicians, we are expected to use evidence-based medicine and standard of care in our practice. All of what we do is supported by statistical studies providing validity of treatment. When I asked the administration at a State-of-the-Hospital open meeting where this statistic was derived, they did not present any national nor local statistical support for its use, and it was not endorsed by Medicare.

Think about it: Why patients stay three days longer is not solely based on doctoring, as many factors including hospital delay in testing, family issues, complications, frailty and discharge problems including placement play a role. The singular intent of this statistic was administrative maligning of admitting primary care physicians.

Our country is faced with a shortage of primary care physicians, and their continued depletion because of paperwork, insurance red tape, lower reimbursement and longer work hours contributes immensely. But for this administration to add on this terribly applied, unsupported statistic only perpetuates the onslaught against these doctors.

Proudly, I can say as a primary care physician, I have never lost a patient in flight. With the loss of so many of these doctors, isn’t it time to stop defaming and instead acknowledge the expertise of those who serve you?

Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D., is a housecall geriatric physician on staff at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and has been engaged as an advocate in many community activities. The views expressed in this column as his alone.