Health Care Reform

Why do I feel like reform and "change" that we voted for is being hijacked? I hope the President puts Congress in its place next week when he addresses them. They are acting like a bunch of unruly children. It's time for the gloves to come off. Bipartisan is a nice idea but I don't see it working.
Now is the time to give directives. We sent a message on Election Day. It's time the message was heard.
We need a public option. Without it we are at the mercy of the health insurance companies and it sends them a message that they can lobby and buy their way into the government. Enough of that! We've had it and it doesn't work.
Our congressman have no incentive to vote for change because change in health care won't affect them. They already have excellent health care. The only way to get their attention is to threaten them with the loss of their jobs. If they don't vote for health care reform with a public option, we won't vote for them come election day.

Why we need healthcare reform

Do you know your health care coverage can be rescinded and your bills go unpaid even after a procedure or treatment has been approved by your insurance company? Think this can't happen? Think again.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rescind17-2009jun17,0,3508020,full.story
In a government meeting recently to discuss health care insurance practices and possible solutions, all three insurance companies represented refused to agree that they would not rescind care previously approved for any reason other than fraud. In fact, it was discovered that employees were rewarded when they rescinded the care of policy holders.
If this isn't an outrage, I don't know what is.

Nursing shortage cools

Looks like the recession is hitting the nursing market as well, especially for new grads. Hospitals in their wisdom are treating health care like just any other business and cutting wherever they can.
I'm sorry, I know they have to be profitable but a hospital, or any place that takes care of patients, is NOT like any other business. We are not moving cars along an assembly line. These are people. The wrong paint color on a car doesn't really matter in the scheme of things. The wrong medication or a delay in treatment can be life-threatening. There is a big difference. We need people who know medicine in charge of the big decisions. People who aren't trying to please those higher up or who aren't grovelling in an effort to keep their own job. People who have the gumption to put a stop to pinching pennies when it endangers lives.
President Obama said he likes and admires nurses. When he overhauls the healthcare system, I hope he looks at how the money is being spent there just as he is doing in other areas. Being efficient won't matter if patients suffer because of it.

Patient Advocate

This past week has been a bit traumatic. Without going into all the details, suffice it to say that I had to raise hell to get care for a family member at a local hospital when it should have been something that automatically happened.
I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't persisted in taking my cause up the chain of command until I got someone to pay attention and see that the proper care was delivered in a timely manner. Yes, I know I'm being vague but I am protecting the patient. Believe me, anyway, when I tell you the situation was dire and it was only by making a royal pain out of myself that a potential disaster was avoided.
It was something I should not have had to do. Is health care that bad? This particular hospital is a good one but the problems I saw was a doctor who overbooked procedures either from a lack of staff/facilities or greed, and staff [nursing, administration] who did not advocate for the patient, who thought that by merely acknowledging a problem, writing up a report, documenting in notes, that their job was done.
NO!
They have an obligation to take the problem up the ladder until a satisfactory solution is reached. In our particular case, a medical device needed to be inserted in a timely manner. But the patient was put off for days. The patient was admitted on Sunday afternoon and we were told on Tuesday morning that it was scheduled for Wednesday despite the patient's deteriorating condition. Instead of the procedure [which took all of an hour], medication was being given [which caused other side effects] and the emergency cart was placed outside the patient's door in case it was needed.
Unacceptable to me! And believe me when I tell you they heard about it.
We were lucky. The procedure was done on Tuesday morning and the patient is doing well.
But I have to wonder how many other patients are compromised on a daily basis by hospitals and doctors and staff across this country who do less than what is best for their patients. And families accept their behavior because they don't know any better and they mistakenly believe their family member is getting the best care available.
I think the time has come to take the system to task.
What Jon Stewart is doing to financial advisors, we need to do to healthcare.

Overhauling our healthcare system

Today in Washington, President Obama will hear the voices of doctors, patients, business owners, and insurers [why aren't nurses mentioned? Don't they have a say in this too?] in order to formulate a plan to revamp our health care delivery system. Reportedly, our country spends $2.4 trillion a year on health care. Yet, I understand that an estimated 48 million [that's million] Americans still don't have basic coverage. The goal is for coverage for everyone in some form.
A lofty goal, indeed, but one whose time has come.

Thank you, President Obama

Like many Americans last night, I tuned in to President Obama's address to both houses of Congress. I had high hopes for that speech and I wasn't disappointed.
As I expected it would be, the speech was filled with hope and promise, encouragement and comfort, but also a call to our better selves. The President not only laid out a plan for him and our leaders but called to each American to do their part. When was the last time you heard your President ask parents to pay attention to their children? It's been a long time coming.
I was also interested, as a nurse and as a consumer, to hear what plans he had for the health care industry. I think his plans are good [streamlining health records by taking them into the digital age, curing cancer, etc].
Addressing education will also help healthcare because some of our problem lies not with a lack of health care students but with a lack of health care teachers.
Targeting the high cost of health care will also be a big boon to the economy because that is something that is going to get worse fast if we are not proactive. The Boomers are going to need lots of care very soon and it's not free. Whether it's private insurance, Medicare, or out of pocket, someone is going to have to pay for it.
All in all, the President nailed it with his Address.
As for the Republicans, what can I say? Same old, same old. They really need to buy a clue.

The Aging Boomers and Health Trends

Health care has been in the news a lot lately. President Obama had made it one of the rallying cries during his campaign and we are poised, it seems, to tackle that issue very soon now that the stimulus bill has passed. Tomorrow, he will address both houses of Congress and I will bet you that health care will be high on the list of the things he talks about.
Why is health care such a hot potato? Because it is a large part of the nation's budget and it's a large part of every household budget. And it promises to get bigger. Not only are we faced with dealing with people who currently have no insurance because of the job market, but the health demographics of this nation are about to change in ways we have never seen before.
Like it or not [and they don't], the Baby Boomers are aging. They are approaching retirement and that phase of life when health costs increase. Couple that with a system that no longer works and we have a problem that definitely needs to be addressed.
President Obama wants to computerize medical records in an effort to drive down costs and make health information more useable, decrease errors, and improve care.
That's a good start but I think we need to do more. Life expectancy is going to go up. The looming nursing shortage has to be tackled - now, before we're in trouble, not after. We need to encourage doctors to specialize in the field of geriatrics [The Gerontological Society of America (2008, April 25). Baby Boomer Health Care Crisis ]. But the need goes beyond that - nursing assistants, social workers, nursing homes, assisted living centers, agencies that offer oversight for meals and care - all of this needs to be revamped as the largest generation ever seen marches slowly into older life. It might seem to be an overwhelming problem but not if we start now.

Doctor shortage in Japan caused a death

A man in Japan was injured in an accident and died while waiting for paramedics tried to find a hospital that would accept him. Their reason for refusal? They did not have the doctor staff to take care of him.
Could that happen elsewhere?
Could there conceivably be other reasons for refusal in days to come?
Is this an unusual case or a portend of things to come?
I don't know. I certainly don't have the answers to that but it definitely concerns me.
Our generation is aging. More health concerns and problems are going to crop up. More hospital days are going to be needed.
Who is going to be there to deliver the care?
I think a far more vexing problem, at least for this country, is not so much a doctor shortage as a nursing shortage. And the nursing shortage is not so much a function of a lack of people wanting to become nurses but a lack of people to teach them.
Nursing programs are feeling a crunch for lack of teachers. Lack of teachers translates into low student enrollment. Low student enrollment translates into a nursing shortage.
Do you see the problem here?

Our health care system is ill...

Medicine is growing by leaps and bounds. It’s a great thing – and also a scary thing. Mistakes are being made and sometimes they are not even being caught.
Cases in point –
A girl friend of mine was hospitalized last week for a suspected cardiac problem. The first evening, her doctor [not her regular family physician] ordered a blood sugar level. They came to draw it while she was having dinner. A few hours later, the doctor came by and told her she was diabetic because her blood sugar was elevated. No kidding, Sherlock! She tried to get him to understand that she was not diabetic, had never been diagnosed as a diabetic, and had no symptoms of diabetes [she’s also a nurse]. He wouldn’t listen to her.
The next day, when he was discharging her, this same doctor wrote her a prescription for Glucophage, blood sugar lowering medication. My friend threw the prescription away. But what if she hadn’t? What if she had taken it and her blood sugar plummeted? She lives alone. Her Rottweiler doesn’t know how to dial 911.
Another case –
Another friend was hospitalized last week for day surgery. She is allergic to Codeine. It was listed on her chart. What did they send her home with as a pain killer? Percocet! It contains a drug similar to Codeine. Did she take it? Yes. Did she know the potential problem? No. Did she have a reaction? Yes, and had to be rushed back to the ER with a drug reaction.
The morale of this story – question everything. Don’t be afraid to be labelled a pain. It’s your life or that of your loved one. Get a second opinion. Look things up yourself. There are great resources on the Web now. Don’t take any medication that you don’t know the ingredients of. Yes, health care is becoming better but it's also getting less and less personal. You have to be an advocate for yourself and those you love.