I've been meaning to post about health care ever since I took a friend to the emergency room a few weeks ago (the friend, who had a broken bone, is fine now). We went to Erlanger, and it was an eye-opening experience. I haven't visited the emergency room in a few years and I came out this time more convinced than ever that the American health care system is in horrible shape -- in fact, it is barely operable at this point.
The whole time I was in the waiting room (somewhere between one and two hours), there was a man, who appeared to be passing a kidney stone, writhing around on the floor. He wasn't sitting in obvious pain, or even reclined and looking uncomfortable. He was literally on the floor, writhing around in pain, with stuff falling out of his pockets, and no one was doing anything to help him. ER staff walked past him -- someone even went over and got the wheelchair he came in on and took it to another patient -- but no one offered him any help while I was in the waiting room.
One other thing really left an impression on me, and that was the type of patients who were there waiting for help. I saw people with injuries, a few people looked physically sick, and there was even a pregnant woman who came in (after she finished her cigarette), but it seemed that a goodly sized plurality of the people waiting for help had mental, rather than physical, problems. In fact, once we made it back into the treatment area, which now features berths that hold three patients, one of our roomies was a woman who told me she'd ridden over in an ambulance from Moccasin Bend because... well, near as I could tell, because she needed some medication. (Our other roomie had been an a car wreck the day before and was getting his pelvis x-rayed.)
When did our nation's mental patients become the problem of our emergency rooms and trauma centers? Surely the ER is not the most efficient place for dealing with the mental disorders of our citizens. And yet, there they were. In large number. And the guy with the kidney stone.
Now, I don't blame Erlanger for this sad state of affairs, or Moccasin Bend, either -- both suffer from ongoing funding problems. I know that one of the worst aspects of our health care system is the burden that a staggering number of uninsured patients place on our emergency rooms, which are obligated to at least stabilize anyone who comes through their doors, whether or not they have insurance. Putting more money into their ER services just means that Erlanger can wave goodbye to that much more of their budget. And yet, the policies of our government are continually adding to the burden on ERs with each passing day. We need to come up with a real solution to our health care problems -- not yet another bullshit bill written by, and for the benefit of, the insurance companies and big pharma -- and we need to do it quickly. We can't wait for the supposed private sector solution that everyone knows is just a myth, and we can't keep putting bandaids on the current, horribly dysfunctional system. We need a real health care plan, and we need it quick-- that dude is still writhing around on the floor somewhere.
I have more to say about this, but I'm going to leave it at that for the moment and pick up this thread at a later date. I'll just add this aside while it is still ripe:
Speaking of bad policy written to benefit the money-changers, rather than the actual patients in our health care system... Bush's medicare drug bill is continuing to prove to be an awful nightmare for the people it was supposed to help. Some friends of mine wrote this cool little ditty that will help if you or a family member needs assistance getting a plan that actually covers a medicine you take: www.DecisionSpring.com. It is a site that will also help you wade through the confusing drug tiers and the donut holes of coverage, calculate costs, and get signed up before the Bush Administration penalizes you even more by increasing the monthly premium for people who miss the May 15th deadline! Check it out!
The whole time I was in the waiting room (somewhere between one and two hours), there was a man, who appeared to be passing a kidney stone, writhing around on the floor. He wasn't sitting in obvious pain, or even reclined and looking uncomfortable. He was literally on the floor, writhing around in pain, with stuff falling out of his pockets, and no one was doing anything to help him. ER staff walked past him -- someone even went over and got the wheelchair he came in on and took it to another patient -- but no one offered him any help while I was in the waiting room.
One other thing really left an impression on me, and that was the type of patients who were there waiting for help. I saw people with injuries, a few people looked physically sick, and there was even a pregnant woman who came in (after she finished her cigarette), but it seemed that a goodly sized plurality of the people waiting for help had mental, rather than physical, problems. In fact, once we made it back into the treatment area, which now features berths that hold three patients, one of our roomies was a woman who told me she'd ridden over in an ambulance from Moccasin Bend because... well, near as I could tell, because she needed some medication. (Our other roomie had been an a car wreck the day before and was getting his pelvis x-rayed.)
When did our nation's mental patients become the problem of our emergency rooms and trauma centers? Surely the ER is not the most efficient place for dealing with the mental disorders of our citizens. And yet, there they were. In large number. And the guy with the kidney stone.
Now, I don't blame Erlanger for this sad state of affairs, or Moccasin Bend, either -- both suffer from ongoing funding problems. I know that one of the worst aspects of our health care system is the burden that a staggering number of uninsured patients place on our emergency rooms, which are obligated to at least stabilize anyone who comes through their doors, whether or not they have insurance. Putting more money into their ER services just means that Erlanger can wave goodbye to that much more of their budget. And yet, the policies of our government are continually adding to the burden on ERs with each passing day. We need to come up with a real solution to our health care problems -- not yet another bullshit bill written by, and for the benefit of, the insurance companies and big pharma -- and we need to do it quickly. We can't wait for the supposed private sector solution that everyone knows is just a myth, and we can't keep putting bandaids on the current, horribly dysfunctional system. We need a real health care plan, and we need it quick-- that dude is still writhing around on the floor somewhere.
I have more to say about this, but I'm going to leave it at that for the moment and pick up this thread at a later date. I'll just add this aside while it is still ripe:
Speaking of bad policy written to benefit the money-changers, rather than the actual patients in our health care system... Bush's medicare drug bill is continuing to prove to be an awful nightmare for the people it was supposed to help. Some friends of mine wrote this cool little ditty that will help if you or a family member needs assistance getting a plan that actually covers a medicine you take: www.DecisionSpring.com. It is a site that will also help you wade through the confusing drug tiers and the donut holes of coverage, calculate costs, and get signed up before the Bush Administration penalizes you even more by increasing the monthly premium for people who miss the May 15th deadline! Check it out!
2 comments:
Alice,
Nice article. Several observations.
1. Sounds like things have not changed much. I was in a motorcycle accident way back in 1979 and was taken to a major Pittsburgh hospital. I had gone into shock and if my nurse girlfriend had not come to the ER lord knows what would have happened. I do remember that they were treating a person with a splinter at the time. I guess it is a sign that bureaucracy lives on.
2. One problem is that there is no rationing of services. Everyone wants treated all the time for everything as if there are no limits on the system. In Iraq I had to triage patients to get the neediest cases to the docs. Apparently the fear of lawsuits is so great here that it can not be done in the USA.
3. Mental disorders seem to be on the rise. My siblings and I have discussed this because each of us has had a child that required assistance for behaviorial issues. We each live in different parts of the country; have different child rearing philosophies; and our kids have been in a variety of public and private schools. But each of us has had a troubled child. Personally I think it has to do with how our culture has evolved with more and more emphasis on a TV / electronic culture. Heck I can not even get my son to sit and watch a baseball game, because it is too slooooow.
Just a few quick observations.
Blake, I think there has been a shift. Perhaps having an advocate with you has always been a good idea in emergency rooms (he who bleeds loudest gets the quickest care), but the ER of my youth was filled with people who needed emergency care -- they were bleeding, had broken bones, or had swallowed something they shouldn't have -- but now the waiting areas are increasingly populated with people with non-emergency medical problems who just have no other options.
But, yeah -- you're right about the rationing of services. There is no sense of proportion or priority in our current system, and the private sector just follows the money -- big pharma has more of a stake in men having erections than they do in curing many diseases.
I'm curious about the increase in mental disorders, and certainly hope that the next administration will take steps to see that they are treated by mental health professionals, and not by emergency room technicians (I can't see this admistration doing any more than proposing further cuts in funding to finance their tax cuts for millionaires and military excursions into sovereign nations).
Post a Comment