Doctors get free food...ALL the time?!

rockabye · Jan 21, 2011

Not at my hospital. They stand in line at the cashier along with the patients, visitors, and the rest of the hospital staff.

resumecpr · Jan 21, 2011

I once worked in an emergency dept. that had a small locked room with a fridge stocked full of bagels, cream cheese, milk, fruit, yogurt, etc. Cereal and other condiments on a shelf. It was hospital paid. Other staff would have to trek to the cafeteria and pay for the same thing. Unfair, I know.....

....that's why I got the combination to the door.....

BA_anthropology · Jan 21, 2011

What about the NPs and PAs? Have you been counting their yogurt cups? :-p

Maybe your hospital can't offer Dr's the best pay, so they try and make up for it with perks.

Interesting observation and I might keep an eye out for it, but really-- I wouldn't worry about it!! :)

ocean waves · Jan 21, 2011

Hello. There have been various food perks for doctors in the hospitals where I have worked. Sometimes the administrators of these hospitals called the free food for doctors a "professional courtesy". In one small hospital where I worked, the doctors had a separate, fancy dining area with more upscale food than the regular cafeteria. It is my understanding that the reason doctors are given such perks is that doctors are the "driving force" for bringing (admitting) patient business to medical facilities. Best wishes!

Anisettes, BSN, RN · Jan 21, 2011

Not where I'm at now - but at my old hospital in the states they did. They had to stand in line like everybody else and show their badge to the cashier who would ring it up as if they were paying, (I think they may have had to ring it up for inventory purposes or perhaps it came out of a special budget set aside for it and they to keep track of it).

Anyway, our hospital had a sushi chef there a few times a week and you could ask him for whatever you wanted (I hate sushi, I just know it was there). The thing is - one of those tiny little trays came out to about $10-15 give or take and some of these docs would grab 3 or 4 of them on top of everything else.

A few times I would be in line behind one of the docs I worked with and they'd tell the cashier to put my lunch on their ticket, so I benefited from the largesse a couple of times. And this is on top of them having their own doc's lounge (locked with keypad) that was stocked like a VIP lounge - usually for the night docs when the cafeteria would be closed.

It has to be some kind of perk the hospital offers them because this was a county hospital and I can't see the county commissioners (and taxpayers) being happy about footing that bill unless it was a perk to make up for lesser wages or something. And it was for ALL docs, attendings, staff docs, visiting docs, residents.

We even had one older surgeon who'd lost his license for running some little pain clinic on the side with shady narc prescribing practices - and he'd been at our hospital forever, and he'd still come in and give his name and get free food. I think he was lonely and just wanted to be back where it was familiar or maybe since he'd couldn't work anymore he was poor, I don't know. I would just see him there in line and say hi.

Otessa, BSN, RN · Jan 21, 2011

Where I have worked there is a doctor's lounge with food in the fridge and sandwiches, etc. The only difference is that every doctor pays a fee yearly for that privelege-not free.

sweet_b · Jan 21, 2011

In the hospital I worked at, the doctors had accounts and it was recorded as they walked by the cashiers. It probably did look like they were getting it for free, but as they passed they would give us the account number. This system worked well, because a lot of them were busy and had to eat lunch on the fly. Once you got to know who was who you didn't need them to tell you, you just knew.

Argo · Jan 21, 2011

Every place I have worked it appears as though the MDs get free food but this is not the case. They ring it up and walk out without paying but get a bill for everything at the end of the month. They do have the surgeon/anesthesia lounge that gets free hot breakfast/lunch, snacks and drinks stocked throughout the day. We are in a slightly different environment though and food needs to be near by, the majority of the time there is not an extra 15-20 minutes available to wait in line but only 5 minutes to eat..... It comes out of our surgery dept budget...

General E. Speaking, RN, RN · Jan 21, 2011

Our docs do get to eat free in the cafeteria. They have a special dining room neatly tucked away from the rest of us. They also have lots of snacks and drinks in the Med Rec Dept for when they are dictating. :rolleyes:

RNperdiem, RN · Jan 21, 2011

The resident doctors work an 80 hour week and earn around $40K their first year. They practically live at the hospital. So yes, the cafeteria does provide free food.

allnurses Guide · Jan 21, 2011

Our docs wound usually eat with us plebes, but they had a meal card of some kind so they aren't really guilty of the Great Yogurt Heist of 2011- :)