Bill, thanks for the invitation to contribute: Here goes:

* As an employer, I'm faced with a cost of over $600.00 per month each to cover my people. That is a formidable amount, but I feel that it is my responsibility to provide this coverage. It's the quality of care that really bothers me.

* As far as Doc is concerned (my father-in-law), physician's extend "professional courtesy" to each other. That used to mean that they didn't charge each other . Now, they simply take whatever insurance is in place for payment. In the 15 years I have served as caretaker, the hospital and doctors bills have been almost non-existant. As a VA nursing home resident, he pays $3500.00 per month, since he doesn't have a pressing financial need for assistance. That's a bargain. Again, it's the level of care that's the concern.

My concerns about the medical situation in this country began when I first started hearing about HMO's. It was obvious that the insurance industry would soon control the delivery of healthcare, and I knew that would be a disaster.

In fact, anytime a business concentrates more on marketing, pricing, insurance....anything more than the product, they're on a sippery slope, as far as I'm concerned. Costs would go up, since the insurance companies would have to get their cut. And service would deteriorate, since the savings promised employers would have to come from reduced costs.

* I have been with Doc for hours sitting in a doctors office watching scores of pharmacy reps walk thru the door to make presentations
ahead of us.

* I had a blood pressure issue, and waited 7 hours to be seen in an emergency room. There were few people there. It was a week-end.

* After seeing what happens in nursing homes, I am an active supporter of a group that lobbies for nursing home reform. Again, staffing, food quality....everything is often cut to the bone, and major funds are spent on lobbying for legislation favorable to the "for profit" companies who run them.

* The training/quality of the workers delivering healthcare is on a downward trend. I have dealt with healthcare deliverers who couldn't speak a complete literate sentence. Jobs formerly done by RN's are now done by LPN's or nursing students doing clinicals.


*24 hours after Doc was admitted to the hospital, no-one knew anything about him other than he was dehydrated...nothing about a serious heart problem. Nothing about Alzheimer's. They were secheduling physical theraphy for a fellow who hasn't been out of a wheelchair for 5 years. The records sent from the VA were "lost in the shuffle"-not the first time that happened.

* I warned the nursing staff that the buzzer had gone off on the IV system used to administer liquids. An assistant turned off the buzzer and said a nurse would have to change the bag. I tried four times to get the nurse's attention. Over an hour later, the site of the IV closed, and major swelling/damage happened.

The only thing done right and on time was delivery of the $20,000.00 plus bill for service.

I am disgusted with the terrible level of service and competance across the board. If I ran my business the way medical related organizations are run, I'd be out of business in a short time. The hospital I'm referring to above touts itself as being one of the top ones in the country. If that's true, we're in BIG trouble.

I grew up as an "Army brat", and thought that the healthcare deliuvery system was far superior to what's available today.

There's the question of how to improve the system from an affordability standpoint and how to make it universally available. What I'm more concerned to fixing the product; bringing competency and compassion back into play and making adequate care the primary goal, which it clearly is not today.

On the nursing home side, I'm in the middle of a fight against the organized "for profit" lobbiests who are trying to eliminate a 5-star rating system which was initiated recently to allow people to compare service at different homes.

Generally, most nursing homes are money-makers where care of residents ranks dead last. Lots of people here play at Assisted Living places and nursing homes and get a lot of satisfaction bringing a little joy to the residents. I don't because of the issues mentioned above.

Making affordable healthcare available is a
serious issue. The bigger one for me is the need for a major cultural change. A return to the day when healthcare people developed real compassion for patients, put them first
and actually did what was needed for patients; not just letting insurance companies control everything.

The entire system is broken and the fix involves much more than just making the currently available services available to everyone.

What a mess!


Russ




[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 09-21-2009).]