Physician Heal Thyself ― The Making of a Whistleblower

Les, a young physician, begins to train as a psychiatrist in New York. Restless, unsettled, and yearning for self-understanding, he chooses to do his additional training in diverse cities. His journey takes him first to San Francisco, then to San Juan, and back again to New York. Through his training and self-examination, he learns about his own insecurities and fears, lessons that would prove essential to him in the future. He starts his career, perhaps a bit wiser, as a staff psychiatrist at a University Hospital. Despite this enviable position, he finds the academic medical environment to be oppressive. The structure of the psychiatry program is ruled by a rigid set of values, that often lead to inappropriate diagnostic labeling of patients and ineffective treatment. When he tries to introduce a broader approach, he is apprehended and subjected to ridicule by his peers. He finds that the Medical Center is governed by a patriarchal paradigm. Professional jealousies dominate the environment, and lead to intrigues, power struggles and vindictive behavior. Les, though not ambitious, and preferring to be neutral, finds himself in the midst of one such power struggle. The stakes increase when his Chairman pressures him to participate in a corrupt and illegal practice of over-billing, or face being a total outcast. He exhausts internal remedies within the Medical Center, and learns that the Administration, Dean, President are all complicit with the illicit billing. With great reluctance, he goes outside the Medical Center to seek justice. Even there he faces resistance, which he must overcome. The choices he makes have grave consequences for him, his career and the hospital structure. He acts as he must and is left dazzled by the outcome, and staring into the blank space of an indeterminate future.