 Who is a provider? What is a provider? Am I a provider? Welcome back to the channel, everybody. For those of you who are new around here, my name is Michael, aka Dr. Chilini, and I am a board certified diagnostic and interventional radiologist. I came across an interesting topic the other day when I was browsing the current medical topics, which is something I definitely do, however nerdy it may be. And I came across something I've actually been thinking about for a little while now. So let's go ahead and just jump right into it. So I came across this article and the title of this article was, we are no longer called physicians. Are we now called providers? Sounds interesting. And as always, I will put the link in the description box below. Now, so just by seeing this title, my ears and eyes kind of perked up, or maybe just my ears, because I don't think your eyes can really perk up so to speak anyways. The first time I ever heard the word provider was in residency. And at first I didn't know exactly what it meant or what people it was referring to or what groups of people it was referring to. I remember thinking, who is a provider? What is a provider? Am I a provider? I provide stuff. Does that make me a provider? What are they providing exactly? I was confused to say the least, but over the last five years, it has evolved to become kind of normal lexicon about the hospital. But without going too far into this topic, let's go ahead and do a dive into this article so we can discuss some of the specifics and provide a nice framework going forward, if you will. So the author starts this article by talking about the name you are given since birth and how important it is to you. Your parents must have spent hours and hours going through many, many books and whatever to find the perfect name that matches you perfectly. And just like the title and name that we are given has so much meaning, so does our professional title or the physician title that me and the author both share. She states that as physicians, our title has been taken under the Hippocratic oath, making it just as important as our given name, meaning it is important and powerful. And this states that we as physicians do no harm or injustice for our patients. And if we carry out this oath, we may gain, I quote, But if we break it down, it may have the opposite effect. So to summarize all of this, she's basically saying that the physician title is earned and it has its sacred, powerful value. However, she goes on to say that our physician title has been eroded over the years and we are no longer called physicians, but now we are called providers. Okay, so stay with me here. This is where it is interesting. She then goes on to talk about how the all-encompassing term providers is a way to dehumanize physicians. And because of that, we will no longer know who we are as physicians. And when you no longer know who you are, you will be lost. This is, yeah, very dramatic, but I know where she's going with this. When we do not know who we are as physicians and when we do not know how to use our title that was anointed to us, when we assume this role, we will be left confused, delirious, and lost without a sense of purpose. And when you're confused about who you are, how can you honor who you are? How can you be a healer and advocate for a patient or be a teacher? If you don't know where you are going, you will be lost. Okay, this is getting a little out of hand now with the drama here, but let's see how this ends. Let's hear it out. She then goes on to conclude by saying that it is important for us as physicians to rise up and come together and remove this confusing veil upon us and take back our title as physicians. In the final bit of text at the end of the article is perfect. It is hashtag, not a provider. How cheeky. Okay, so this was a very short article and it was dramatic as you can obviously see here, but I see her point. So let's break it down a little bit and see what I think about this all-encompassing term provider. What do I think a provider is? Do I want to be called a provider? Do I think this is a play to dehumanize physicians? Let's answer these three questions. What do I think a provider is? Well, for me personally, when I originally heard the term provider, I thought it was talking about a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner. I thought it was a way to combine both of those titles into one all-encompassing provider title. Therefore, you didn't have to call the floor and say, hey, is there a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant around to take my call? You could shorten it and just say, hey, is there a provider around? And usually the person answering the phone would know what you meant. And by the way, I am very, very guilty of doing just this. I call up floors all the time when I have an important finding that I see on the radiograph or CT or whatever. And I always ask, is there a provider around? And I never really thought about doing that until I read this article. I just sort of assumed that that's who I was referring to and everybody else knew that as well. And again, I just thought it was a shortened version of the title I've heard in the past, mid-level provider. And now they were just being called providers because I've seen some things where people didn't like being called mid-levels and all that kind of stuff. So I thought it was just shortened to providers. This was a little bit of ignorance on my part. However, as a radiologist who is cranking out many, many studies all day long, every single day at work, if I have a critical finding that I have to tell the PA, the NP, or the doctor about something stat, I call the floor and say, hey, can I speak to a provider? And what I realized when I used to just be referring to nurse practitioners or physician assistants, when I called the floors and asked to speak to a provider, what I really meant by that was, can I speak to a nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or a doctor? I have no idea why I thought this or why I even use the term provider, but I am definitely guilty of this. I am the problem. But to be honest, I'm not really into titles. I don't really ever pay attention to them that much. It's just not something I really am into. Titles aren't that important to me. And I don't need people to call me Dr. Jolini all the time. My patients, sure. And when my colleagues are talking in front of patients referring to me or whatnot, they should call me Dr. Jolini. But in respect to my other colleagues, co-workers, other physicians, MPs, PAs about the hospital, when you refer to me as Dr. Jolini and I worked with you and see you all day long, all the time, I feel like it's kinda weird. Just tell me, Michael. The people I work with know I'm a doctor, so I don't really think they need to reinforce it every single day, all day long, every time they talk to me. Like if I saw one of the nurses I worked with or one of the PAs at a restaurant that's like two blocks outside of my hospital, I would expect them to say, hey, Michael, not hey, Dr. Jolini. It is weird because that's only a two block distance. So in the confines of the hospital you have to be referred to as Dr. Jolini, but if you go outside, you don't have to be referred to as Dr. Jolini anymore. I don't know, it's a weird black or white kind of thing, but I hope the people I worked with would not call me Dr. Jolini if they saw me out at a restaurant. Just call me Michael. Also, I don't really want everybody in the restaurant to know I'm a doctor. Is that weird? And I especially don't want them to know I'm a doctor on a plane. So if you ever see me on a plane, don't say Dr. Jolini, just say Michael or Jolini or if you wanna whisper Dr. Jolini, that's fine too. Because the last thing people want on a plane when there's a medical emergency is a radiologist, sad truth. Now, I mean, to be honest, if there was a medical emergency, I could probably get through it. Like I can dig back deep, remember my whole like ACLS protocol, that kind of stuff. Like I still got it in me, but I would much rather have like an emergency physician do that stuff instead of a radiologist. I'm a little out of practice when it comes to that stuff, but I'm not gonna sell myself short. I can still handle it, but I just wouldn't prefer to. Okay, I'd address. So yeah, the whole title thing is not my thing. I always introduce myself to my co-workers as Michael and this may be a generational thing. My old program director in residency used to always introduce himself by his first name. And anytime you called him doctor last name, he would always correct you and say, no, call me by my first name. Even as a resident, he does that with all the staff, everybody. But again, I guess I do kind of care about titles because I always introduce myself to patients as Dr. Cellini. So here I am being hypocritical, sweet. I would never walk into a room and say, hey, I'm provider Cellini. That just sounds weird. And the patient probably like, what? What are you providing me? So I clearly see the author's point on this that it can be confusing. Labeling PAs, NPs and doctors promotes more confusion around the workplace and especially patients. And for that reason, anything that promotes more confusion amongst patients in the workplace, I'm against. I mean, nowadays, everybody wears a white coat in the hospital anyways and nobody has any clue what anyone does anymore. There's already enough confusion between titles and who's wearing what code. Why promote more confusion? And yes, I know that I'm being a little contradicting here by saying I don't care about titles, but then I also care about titles. But at the end of the day, it's just about decreasing global confusion, which makes me have to care about the title. So I don't care about the title, but I also don't want people to be confused, which forces me to care about the title. I'm probably not making like any sense at this point, but hopefully you're all sticking with me here. So I kind of answer the second question. Do I want to be called a provider? The answer is no, I want to be called a physician. That's my title. I don't need to be called something else or another title that someone wants me to be called. I'm a physician and that's what I should be called. However, if someone called down to my radiology department and asked, is there a provider around? What am I supposed to do? Like act like I didn't hear it. Tell them a doctor is around, but not a provider or just pick up the phone and say, there is no provider around. You know what I mean? I don't want to be called a provider, but I will answer to it if I am called a provider. What kind of backwards world and video is this? I'm just making no sense. So hopefully you all are following along. Hopefully you haven't turned off the video yet. We're almost done. So the final question here is, do I think being called a provider is dehumanizing to physicians? The answer is no, I think that's a little dramatic and a little excessive. I don't feel dehumanized if I'm called a provider. I usually just answer it and don't even think twice about it. I don't think it completely devalues everything I've worked for and done the last decade or so of my life. I will say though, it is kind of strange how integrated it is amongst the hospital lexicon already. I used to hear it all the time and I'm personally guilty of saying it myself. I told you, I'm just as guilty as the next person and I am the problem. So in conclusion, I personally don't care about being called a doctor in general amongst my colleagues, coworkers and all that stuff. However, I am against anything that promotes more confusion amongst the hospital setting and more specifically patients. So for that reason, I think physicians should be called physicians and the rest of the healthcare team should be called by their specific titles or their names or whatever they prefer. After all, do we really need an all-encompassing term to classify everybody on the healthcare team? Don't we just call them just that, a team? Like why don't I just call the floor and ask for someone on the team? Why do I ask for a provider? Those are things I'm going to change going forward. So I will replace provider with team. I don't wanna promote more confusion in the workplace. So goodbye to the word provider. You've had a good run. Let me know in the comments what your thoughts on this topic are. Do you like the term provider? Do you not like the term provider? What do you prefer to be called if you're a doctor? Let me know your thoughts as well. Should we even have this term at all? I'm curious to know your thoughts, seriously. So as always, make sure you subscribe to my channel, follow me on Instagram and TikTok if you don't already. And as always, I'll see you all on the next video. Bye.