The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-05-23
How Much Shall the Doctor be
Paid {?

What may the physician reasonably
demand for his services? is question
that he and his patient are not always
agreed on; and there being, unhappily,
no fixed charge for medical attendance
in this country, the physician, natural
ly enough, strives to obtain as much as
he can.
Unless contract is made before the
services are rendered-rarely the case
in the treatment of irregular patients
a physician can make any estimate he
likes as to the value of his services, and
the courts are continually being asked
to examine into physicians charges.
The fact that juries rarely sanction
these charges would indicate that they
are apt to be extortionate.
In recent paper in the Medical Rec
ord on 'How Much Shall the Doctor be
Paid?' writer lays down some really
excellent rules for deciding upon the
value of medical services. He says:
'In considering the question of the
amount of compensation due the physi-
clan or surgeon for his professional SER
vices, there are two or three prelimi-
nary points which require an answer
favorable to the practitioner. There
must be no doubt as to the fact of the
services being faithfully and skillfully
rendered, and the charge of malprac-
tice must not be raised against him. If
there is question as to the skillfulness
of the treatment, the compensation
may be seriously cut down; or if an
improper or harmful mode of treatment
has been adopted, the right to any COM
pensation at all may be denied, and the
patient allowed to recover damages in
stead
This is fair as far as it goes, and if
the writer had laid down a rule for de-
Gliding what medical services are worth
when successful, and just how much
the doctor should hand over to his pa
tient as compensation for rendering his
case more desperate than it was when
he began his ministrations, nothing
would be wanting to make it as easy
to deal with physician or surgeon as
it is with mason or brass inisher.
A physician, for instance, who poi
soned his patients while experimenting
with new qualities of vaccine virus, in
stead of charging them for the medical
attendance necessary to insure their re-
covery, should pay to each a fair COM
pensation for loss of health, etc.
AS to what physician should be
paid when successful in his treatment
could readily be determined, were it
not for the fact that the unskillful are
inclined to regard their services as of
the highest market value.
The fact is that although in no pro-
fession there is to be found more abili-
ty and faithfulness to duty than in the
medical, there is at the same time no
profession in which quackery can ride
rampant with such impunity. The
physician who lives in great house
and rides about in state has no trouble
in obtaining large fees for his services,
even though these consist for the most
part in feeding bread pills to old ladies
with the gour, wfleieas the e'0Dscure man,
often of really commanding ability,
often finds difficulty in obtaining small
fees for really sklllfully performed oper.
ations.
Dickens, careful observer of char
acter, understood this credulity of the
public. His Mr.. Bob Sawyer built uI
a fourishing apothecary business by
sending his boy around to leave pre-
scriptions at different houses, and ther
calling later to explain the mistakes.
This gave the impression that he was
doing large business, and was there
fore at least fashionable, if not skill
f,,1 oopoponnHar