VIP Medical Care - by Bertie Bregman, MD

On December 22, 2022, the New York Times published an investigative article about NYU Medical Center titled, ‘Major Trustee, Please Prioritize’: How NYU’s E.R. Favors the Rich. The article relates how NYU bumps VIPs to the head of the line in the ER with perks such as a special trustee phone line, alerts in the medical record, and even a separate area - room 20 - reserved for critical cases and VIPs. Since reading the article I’ve been thinking a lot about the phenomenon of VIP patients in medicine, and how it differs - or should differ - from VIP treatment in other areas of life. It may be useful to divide VIPs into three categories: Friends and Family, Celebrities, and Benefactors. Friends and Family is a good place to start because it reveals how the concept of VIP is to some degree inseparable from basic human nature. We all operate within a system of concentric social circles, beginning with family at the center, and extending outward to friends, professions, religions, nationalit

On December 22, 2022, the New York Times published an investigative article about NYU Medical Center titled, ‘Major Trustee, Please Prioritize’: How NYU’s E.R. Favors the Rich. The article relates how NYU bumps VIPs to the head of the line in the ER with perks such as a special trustee phone line, alerts in the medical record, and even a separate area - room 20 - reserved for critical cases and VIPs. Since reading the article I’ve been thinking a lot about the phenomenon of VIP patients in medicine, and how it differs - or should differ - from VIP treatment in other areas of life. It may be us