I took my father to the hospital for an MRI this morning. For all the bustle and self-important people striding about, hospitals always seem to function on their own time — a notch or two slower than the Post Office. After my daughter was in the hospital for her heart surgery, I’ve maintained that a day in the hospital is like a week of real time.
They told my father to be there at 7 AM. They didn’t start the process for him until 8:10 AM. His doctor had sent over forms ordering a brain scan, but supplied some other material indicating back scan. After they got that cleared up, another doctor came out to ask a question because he couldn’t read the ordering doctor’s handwriting. We couldn’t understand him (I thought his accent was Eastern European), but after my father went on at great length about why he was there, he seemed satisfied.
As soon as my father went off to change into that delightful hospital gown, they asked a couple of the other people waiting if they wanted to go to the MRI facility in another tower because they were backed up at this one. As far as I could tell, 10 minutes after starting, they were already 30 minutes behind schedule. That’s the medical profession for you. They’re going to be there all day, so you might as well be, too.
I see two problems with our health care system, and no, it’s not the lack of health insurance for a lot of people or the lack of a single payer. The first problem is the whole third party pay for health care. By and large, the patient isn’t the customer, the employer or the government is. This leads to the crap you have to put up with a patient — the wasting of your time on a prodigious scale, the condescension, the constant questioning if the treatment is the best or just the cheapest. The other problem is that we don’t have enough doctors. I know it seems like a crazy complaint for someone who, if you couldn’t tell, doesn’t care for too many doctors. But the point is, part of the lack of competition is the undersupply of doctors. Have you ever heard of an out of work doctor? The supply is carefully controlled to insure that never happens, and not for the patients’ benefit.
Anyway, that’s the sort of stuff that goes through your mind as you wait around all morning long.
