PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dr. Lori Lemberg, Primary Care Physician at Jacobi Hospital
3:12:18
ยท
160 sec
Dr. Lori Lemberg, a primary care physician at Jacobi Hospital for 31 years, provided testimony on the challenges faced by doctors in the NYC Health + Hospitals system. She corrected information about patient scheduling, highlighted issues with workload and documentation, and expressed support for the strike authorization due to concerns about fair compensation and negotiation.
- Clarified that Jacobi Hospital schedules 10 patients in the morning and 9 in the afternoon, with the reduction due to PAGNY only paying for 8-hour days
- Described increased workload due to reduced appointment times (40 to 20 minutes) and extensive documentation requirements
- Emphasized the need for parity across the system, particularly for underpaid subspecialists, and expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of the current contract without fair negotiation
Lori Lemberg
3:12:18
Hi.
3:12:19
I am doctor Lori Lundberg.
3:12:21
I am also at Jacobi.
3:12:23
I've been there for 31 years.
3:12:25
I'm a primary care physician.
3:12:27
I also do, inpatient, medical consultation.
3:12:31
And I just first wanted to correct at least that Jacobi and my clinic director actually verified with Metropolitan.
3:12:38
We have 10 patients scheduled for our morning, and we have 9 in the afternoon.
3:12:43
And the only reason it was changed from 9 from 10 to 9 was because we are only paid by PAGNY for 8 hour days.
3:12:51
So if you work 9 hours, you are not paid for that additional hour.
3:12:54
On our PACOM, it comes off as unpaid hours.
3:12:57
So they drop the 4:40, slot for those patients so that we can end at 4:30.
3:13:04
Although, obviously, our day is never done within 8 hours.
3:13:09
Besides the additional with the new patients, the 40 minute to 20 minute, comes a whole much more in the back end between EPIC and all the documentation that you need to make for every patient that you're seeing, going over their behavioral health issues, their, if they're using drugs, the PACO, helping them, with smoking cessation, all of the other issues that come in.
3:13:35
It's all of the, documentation that needs to go in and then following up on your in basket and then making sure that your own patients can be seen in a reasonable period of time, which obviously a lot of are booked out 6 months.
3:13:50
So we don't have the the ability to have them come back in a week or 2 or say, what's your one problem?
3:13:57
Because most of those patients, the new patients are coming.
3:14:00
I've had patients moving here from other countries with medications that are not in our system.
3:14:07
They don't know their medications.
3:14:08
They have uncontrolled diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension.
3:14:12
And then, you know, on the back of that is your in basket, so you have to do your prior authorizations.
3:14:18
You have to renew medications and check labs, and that just becomes a bigger and bigger issue.
3:14:27
Besides that, I'm just I'm here as a one of the doctors that signed the strike authorization because we need parity across the system.
3:14:36
We have a lot of the subspecialists, especially in medicine, that are very much underpaid and not getting marketplace adjustments.
3:14:44
Primary care did get a marketplace adjustment.
3:14:48
And, our benefits were then cut.
3:14:51
And then our this contract was implemented against without any fair negotiation.
3:14:57
Thank you.