PROJO Article: The following is from an email exchange I thought would be valuable to this conversation.
Kim


Mr. Smith:

I do not know where you got your data from. I am an internist and work like a dog and don't even come close to the claimed salary that you report. How did you get your data? And did you confirm that data? I ask that you do further research and write a more responsible article using confirmed data. This is article will only fuel the exodus of more doctors out of the State of RI. The insurers will eat us alive with this unconfirmed data and proceed to cut our pay; and then we will leave the state even more. Do you have a primary care doctor? If you don't go try to find one that is taking new patients!

My income over the last 5 years has declined each year. My 1040 income last year is about 45K less than the average that you report in your article, and I have one of the busiest practices in a 20+ internal medicine group. There is a disconnect between what the table states and reality.

Please respond promptly.

Warren Licht, MD


Dear Dr. Licht:

The data in the story comes from the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, specifically their Labor Market Information Unit, which compiles salary information for all occupations in the state. According to a spokesman for the DLT, they survey about 2,000 Rhode Island employers every year on salary figures. For physicians, that would include places such as Rhode Island Hospital. We were reporting the figures they released to the public. If you have questions about the methodology, I’d suggest you contact them directly. I deal with Laura Hart, 462-8090.

Andy Smith.


Mr. Smith:

I spoke with Laura Hart today and she is going to research the data and see what it all means. She agreed that perhaps there may be clumping of data and that it may not fairly represent RI doctors' situation. Personally I think that your article did more than report data; you had many commentaries that used the data and made inferences that frankly are not true. I think that as a journalist you should have done a better job in confiming your sources of this data before publishing such an article. I am very disappointed.

I told Ms. Hart to not only contact myself with her research of the data but to contact you and the RIMS. I hope that you are able to take that follow-up from her and re-write another follow-up piece that rectifies any misrepresentation of the data. Even with that follow-up piece, I am afraid your article is too damning for us as a specialty (Primary Care) to reverse public impression.

Sincerely,
Dr. Licht


From Al Puerini, MD:

I think the PCLC should act on this. If we were making the money they stated in the article, we wouldn't need a PCLC!!!
The article was truly outrageous and Warren's comments are right on!

Al

Albert J. Puerini, Jr., M.D.