A 26-year-old dental student in Connecticut died in an intensive care unit that was overseen by a remote "tele-health" doctor who pronounced him dead on a video screen, a lawsuit says.
Why would a hospital pay a US physician 200K a year when they can get a doctor from Pakistan to do the same work for 50K a year?
Liability to the hospital if a remote doctor fucks up? Just for starters.
It’s also very difficult to manage remote workers. As a result, that $50k Pakistani doctor needs another $50k Pakistani contract manager and a Pakistani HR manager and a nurse who can communicate fluently with both patient and doctor and software that an IT firm needs to maintain and a lawyer to sort out all the messy details of licensing and practice.
At the end of the day, it isn’t nearly the cost savings you’re promised.
Every outsourcing gambit plays out this way. Which makes it more of a negotiating ploy against local workers. Threatening to outsource is far more profitable than actual outsourcing.
Liability to the hospital if a remote doctor fucks up? Just for starters.
It’s also very difficult to manage remote workers. As a result, that $50k Pakistani doctor needs another $50k Pakistani contract manager and a Pakistani HR manager and a nurse who can communicate fluently with both patient and doctor and software that an IT firm needs to maintain and a lawyer to sort out all the messy details of licensing and practice.
At the end of the day, it isn’t nearly the cost savings you’re promised.
Every outsourcing gambit plays out this way. Which makes it more of a negotiating ploy against local workers. Threatening to outsource is far more profitable than actual outsourcing.