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

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Jan 21, 2011

i noticed a few times at work that the mds would take a water bottle for free every now and then, but today i was really observing them in the cafeteria, and i realized, all their food was free! they would just tell the cafeteria workers what they want or just grab however many yogurt cups their little heart desired (i saw one md grab five yogurt cups! what are you doing with five? stocking up for your family? give "free samples" to pts with diarreah or yeast infections? or maybe he has diarrhea?)
does your hospital give free food to doctors all the time? special occassions like holidays don't count...
man, and i've always wondered why the price was so high for not so great quality food...

lol, it could have been one of the docs i work with. when our unit gets really busy we don't always get to take a lunch break, even for 15 minutes. sometimes the docs will bring us food from their cafeteria, which we wolf down in a couple of minutes before we race back to work. keeps us from fainting and makes us more likely to go the extra mile for the docs when they need us to. they're no fools.:)

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Jan 21, 2011

Our residents get X amt of dollars in food cards, but the regular staff have to pay.

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Jan 21, 2011

Doctors in my old hospital got their food for free. There aren't a lot of doctors compared to the rest of the employee's in the hospital so I guess it doesn't really cost that much for their food.

Guest717236 · Jan 21, 2011

its most likely a celebration of the fact that they are getting

a chance to eat. the perk should extend to nurses.

if i had a dollar for every time in the cafe i was taking my

first bite of dinner, when my colleague would announce

"jahra, you are wanted back up on the floor..........................."

another fine dining experience lost. (and i never did eat that shift)

just one more reason, free finger foods and sliders should be

available at the nurse's station. :nurse:

sevensonnets · Jan 21, 2011

Our docs have their own dining room. You have to know the code to get in. The food is the same as the cafeteria's but they have the BEST cookies ever. I know this because one of our pulmonologists brings me one every single day.

diligent-trooper · Jan 21, 2011

How do you know for sure the physicians are receiving free food? They could have a charge count...

AmericanRN · Jan 21, 2011

Our doctors pay with cash, credit or debit cards like everyone else in the hospital. When I was a student not a single MD got anything free from a cafeteria out of 6 different hospitals I rotated at. There were a few OR suites at a Level I Trauma center that was stocked with food that the surgeons paid for monthly. That said those same MDs let OR nurses, medical students & nursing students eat in there with them for free.

Flo., BSN, RN · Jan 21, 2011

Our doc get free food. They have a separate dinning room with waiters. The OR has an area stocked with anything they might fancy. They got it pretty sweet.

chorkle · Jan 21, 2011

Seems to me, it's just a perk; why fuss? As many have said, it looks like it's "free," but may not be.

One for-profit hospital I remember, ER had a courtesy cart for pt. visitors & families--sodas, juice, crackers. Several nurses and the occasional clerical worker could be observed taking the stuff at end of shift, or lamenting that there's no "xyz" here--"darn, I wanted one for my daughter's lunch".

And someone is concerned that a physician might be getting a "free" meal? Some of them don't even get to eat at all.

JustinAllen · 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.....

That room was for the EMT's and Paramedics that visited the hospital. Many times as a Paramedic I had the option of where to take a patient, assuming there were no life threatening issues, to multiple hospitals in a certain area. We almost always went to the hospital ER that had the better food, drinks for us.

linearthinker, DNP, RN · Jan 21, 2011

I have no idea. I don't worry about what other people are getting, I just mind my own business. Why do you care OP?

gonzo1, ASN, RN · Jan 21, 2011

Sometimes our docs will bring us food. Those yogurts might have been for the nurses he was working with. Docs do seem to get a lot of bennies though. I guess it is par for the course.