My maiden aunt, who’s in her mid-70s and in a nursing home, had some medical problems. Throwing up blood was reported. The home sent her to the hospital. Initially, the ER didn’t believe, but her problem was made obvious, when she did it for them. So a “stomach scope” test was scheduled. As her proxy, I consented under the gun.
So, here’s my rant. None of these caring professionals gives a damn outside of their little specialty.
We arrive to “check up” on her and we found her back in her room. Getting a nurse to talk to me was a chore. Nurse seemed like it was a bother. I asked about getting her something to eat now that there was “no trouble found”. No doc orders. Dig up doc for orders. Order food; no one in the food prep to deliver food. Food arrives (and it was nice), but no silverware. Find silverware, but the aide had time to take a personal cell phone call in her room while we all waited. I feed the aunt by cutting up the food and cajoling her.
There is a silent disrespect to the patient and the family.
It’s hard to put your finger on. Maybe they are overworked. Maybe they feel they are underpaid. Maybe it’s because we don’t pay the bill directly and they don’t see us as the consumer. Maybe, maybe, maybe. As I said it’s hard to put your finger on it. But it’s there. It palpable.
If this is an example of medicine of the future, then we are in big trouble.
Sigh!
# # # # #
Reinke Faces Life 
>I have seen the same in other ‘facilities’. Mostly in the care for the
>elderly, but also in the regular hospitals.
I guess it stands out there the most. No one goes into these fields unless they have the vocation to really help others at the most elemental level. But, having “done” a little “health care” on the First Aid Squad, I think that the money grinds on people.
As with most things, I blame the gooferment and the system that has been created.
First, and foremost, the gooferment has broken the link between the payer and the provider. I see that as a root cause of dissatisfaction. Which would you rather open a hotel or a hospital? What is a hospital other than a hotel for sick people? So, at one time, I can remember my first experience was with a for profit hospital. Knickerbockers Hospital for my tonsils. I was only little, but I remember my Mom getting the princely sum of 57$ to pay for the bill. Everybody in the family I was told chipped in. All I know is that I was in and out and no worse for the wear and tear. Later, I remember my appendix operation, and my Mom had “insurance” from her “benefits”. There was a ton more paperwork and a lot of correspondence back and forth. And it took several months to get it all taken care of. Interesting? I find it so.
I remember hospitals — for profit, non-profit sectarian, non-profit non-sectarian, charity, and religious. The Archdiocese of New York would have a second collection just for the hospitals in the Spring.
I think that “benefits”, which I later learned were a direct result of the WW2 wage and price controls, began the erosion of the payer – servicer linkage. Later, “insurance” further weakened that link as it stepped in between the two. I remember my Mom filling out forms to be “reimbursed” by her insurance company after she paid the hospital. Later, the gooferment gave all seniors “Medicare” and immediately inserted a vast bureaucracy in the medical field. Medicaid, HMOs, and on and on and on.
So, I think that the gooferment prevents a free market in medical care. Medical care as we learned in economics is an good with an inelastic demand curve. Patients will generally be willing to pay whatever is necessary. People will demand as much as you can supply when it’s free. “Benefit”, “insurance”, “Medicare” make it “free”. So it’s no surprise we have a crisis.
AND, it think that we also see the “cost reduction” pressure applied to the service provider. Hence, nurses and teachers are in a gooferment capped field for wages. And, as the usual sneakiness of the gooferment, they hide their role in the fiasco. When they lower their reimbursement rates to doctors, doctors limit their practices or give shoddier service. So the docs get the blame not the gooferment. (Why does the gooferment license doctors anyway? That limits the supply of docs. Do they think we can’t figure out ways to “qualify” the good from the bad?)
> look at the prime example of teachers.
Gooferment skoolz limit what teachers can earn. The gooferment installs a “union” to perpetuate the “education theater”.
> People get a 4-year degree and teaching certificate
NO roi! They didn’t understand the “game” and as soon as the did, they escaped.
>what you are left with in certain industry jobs then is people who just ‘need a job’ and don’t particularly care
You get left with those who won’t or can’t escape. And, then they have a poor attitude, can’t be fired, and everyone loses.
>that is what is happening to our job force, but just one humble opinion here.
I think it’s a “big conspiracy” of unintended consequences.
(At least, I hope that it’s unintended. Although, the American education system was designed by socialists with the avowed goal of dumbing down the population so that they could be easily led by the elite. They certainly succeeded. Read Horace Mann, Dewey, and Rockefeller)
My answer is always the same: end ALL the wars — foreign and domestic, stop the dole — for people and companies, bring the troops home, cut the gooferment back to strict constitutional size, pardon all the non-violent people in prison, phase out “publik eddikation”, and return to honest money.
Part of ending the dole is ending the “benefits” / “insurance” scam. Why as an employee does my employer get to deduct the cost of my health insurance, but if I buy it on my own, I can’t? So, the gooferment can “rescue” me with laws like COBRA, ERISA, and FALSA!
Argh!!
LikeLike
I have seen the same in other ‘facilities’. Mostly in the care for the elderly, but also in the regular hospitals. It is hard to understand, but I believe it stems to the fact that our current job structure is strictly about money anymore. ie., doesn’t anyone try to get a job that they like doing, regardless of the pay? I believe I lived through a time when that was true….look at the prime example of teachers. People get a 4-year degree and teaching certificate, and then later you find thme in the IT industry or banking, or some other professional area that pays better. I have worked with countless x-teachers. And what you are left with in certain industry jobs then is people who just ‘need a job’ and don’t particularly care for the characteristics that it contains. I believe that is what is happening to our job force, but just one humble opinion here.
LikeLike