Posted on 04/20/2016 5:03:01 PM PDT by Kaslin
I write this from the hospital. Seems I have lung cancer.
My doctors tell me my growth was caught early and I'll be fine. Soon I will barely notice that a fifth of my lung is gone. I believe them. After all, I'm at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. U.S. News & World Report ranked it No. 1 in New York. I get excellent medical care here.
But as a consumer reporter, I have to say, the hospital's customer service stinks. Doctors keep me waiting for hours, and no one bothers to call or email to say, "I'm running late." Few doctors give out their email address. Patients can't communicate using modern technology.
I get X-rays, EKG tests, echocardiograms, blood tests. Are all needed? I doubt it. But no one discusses that with me or mentions the cost. Why would they? The patient rarely pays directly. Government or insurance companies pay.
I fill out long medical history forms by hand and, in the next office, do it again. Same wording: name, address, insurance, etc.
I shouldn't be surprised that hospitals are lousy at customer service. The Detroit Medical Center once bragged that it was one of America's first hospitals to track medication with barcodes. Good! But wait -- ordinary supermarkets did that decades before.
Customer service is sclerotic because hospitals are largely socialist bureaucracies. Instead of answering to consumers, which forces businesses to be nimble, hospitals report to government, lawyers and insurance companies.
Whenever there's a mistake, politicians impose new rules: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act paperwork, patient rights regulations, new layers of bureaucracy...
Nurses must follow state regulations that stipulate things like, "Notwithstanding subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a) of this subdivision, a nurse practitioner, certified under section sixty-nine hundred ten of this article and practicing for more than three thousand six hundred hours may comply with this paragraph in lieu of complying with the requirements of paragraph (a)..."
Try running a business with rules like that.
Adding to that is a fear of lawsuits. Nervous hospital lawyers pretend mistakes can be prevented with paper and procedure. Stressed hospital workers ignore common sense and follow rigid rules.
In the intensive care unit, night after night, machines beep, but often no one responds. Nurses say things like "old machines," "bad batteries," "we know it's not an emergency." Bureaucrats don't care if you sleep. No one sues because he can't sleep.
Some of my nurses were great -- concerned about my comfort and stress -- but other hospital workers were indifferent. When the customer doesn't pay, customer service rarely matters.
The hospital does have "patient representatives" who tell me about "patient rights." But it feels unnatural, like grafting wings onto a pig.
I'm as happy as the next guy to have government or my insurance company pay, but the result is that there's practically no free market. Markets work when buyer and seller deal directly with each other. That doesn't happen in hospitals.
You may ask, "How could it? Patients don't know which treatments are needed or which seller is best. Medicine is too complex for consumers to negotiate."
But cars, computers and airplane flights are complex, too, and the market still incentivizes sellers to discount and compete on service. It happens in medicine, too, when you get plastic surgery or Lasik surgery. Those doctors give patients their personal email addresses and cellphone numbers. They compete to please patients.
What's different about those specialties? The patient pays the bill.
Leftists say the solution to such problems is government health care. But did they not notice what happened at Veterans Affairs? Bureaucrats let veterans die, waiting for care. When the scandal was exposed, they didn't stop. USA Today reports that the abuse continues. Sometimes the VA's suicide hotline goes to voicemail.
Patients will have a better experience only when more of us spend our own money for care. That's what makes markets work.
I am so sorry for your dx. Please read up A LOT on the evils of the cancer industry. They have a lot of tricks and horrible stuff going that are,me hen looked at properly, scams. They prey on your emotions and even more on the emotions of your loved ones.
I agree fully with you on medical care. It needs to go back to fee for service, with insurance only being for absolute calamities.
Research information INDEPENDENTLY of modern oncology on every choice they give you. Be fully informed. Know that they will NEVER push a wait and see or a natural alternative to their cogs. Know that 50% of immune-busting chemo given to breast cancer patients is not only unnecessary but actually harmful.
Don’t let them use your spouse and loved ones as a trick. That is where the docs spell out choices and always use the same theme as Hillary, “fighting.” And your loved ones will sob and say “We want to do EVERYTHING to save Kaslin!” It’s a trap.
Prayers up for you.
That’s one of my medical gripes as well—the engineered disconnect from the patients who would maybe contact their doctors, etc, without following the hierarchy, they cannot do so directly. My eye doc, however, gave me all his phone numbers and told me to call him anytime for whatever reason concerning my eyeball. Nice touch.
Really sorry to read this. I have always liked Stossel, even though we disagree on lots of things. Prayers for a complete recovery.
John, you should have found a way to go to the University of Virginia Medical Center.
First class from top to bottom.
My wife was in the ER, then ICU.
In the ER she was attended by three doctors and a horde of nurses.
As her problem was with her lungs she was attended by a pulmonary therapist every minute she was in the ER.
When she was sent to ICU she was seen by a team of three doctors, a pulmonary therapist and more nurses.
The nurses at ICU had no more than four patients to each two nurse team.
A nurse was checking on her personally every thirty minutes.
One of her doctors was with her enough that she was seen by one of the team five times each day.
Every single one of the doctors and nurses who tended her were heavily invested in her health because they CARED.
It wasn’t a job for them, it was a calling.
But thanks anyway and I am sure John Stossel appreciates your prayers
He is mu favorite libertarian
I knew a guy that just died at 96 smoked like a chimney his whole life ( i think since 12) lungs where clear and good dr’s said. never heard him cough or have any effects.
I have a friend with LC. Never smoked in his life.
My son recently spent a few days at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I was floored by how responsive everyone was. Customer service was excellent.
Billing is a different story. We’ve found thousands of dollars in mistakes.
I have heard of people getting LC who never smoked. There has to be some other reason for it.
My BIL’s insurance has an I Teresa g feature. Your doc says you need Scan A and Procedure D. The insurance company provides you with a list of local vendors who do Scan An what they charge and their results profile. The same for Procedure D. They let the customer make the choice.
——I knew a guy that just died at 96 smoked like a chimney his whole life ( i think since 12) -——
My grandfather smoked since he was 12 until he died at 88....
He smoked unfiltered for about 50 years....
doctor misdiagnosed a heart value problem until it was too late...
Strange how some people can smoke for almost their entire life and not be affected health wise...
Hopkins in Baltimore has a terrible reputation for bad service. I love U Md. Nothing, but amazing care and service there. Quite a few people left Hopkins and retreated to Md and we’re happy they did.
Low cellular oxygen - acidic tissue environment.
But don't quote me, I've been attacked enough by paid maniacs today. For the record, until the AMA says something, it doesn't exist. Got it? It Doesn't Exist. And it's best if NASA and the pharmaceutical companies agree, too. Just saying. Can't be too careful.
I can’t say enough good about my two hip replacement surgeries at St Thomas West hospital in Nashville last year.
Stossel lives in Manhattan and that is like smoking a pack a day. Plus the whole place is saturated with pesticides - fighting cockroaches for decades leaves a lot of contamination
I was unconscious and on a ventilator for half of the first week. I spent the rest of the time trying to learn the names of the half dozen doctors working on my case.
I experienced just one unreasonable nurse during my stay. Everybody else was superb. I literally owe these people my life.
Cancer sucks.
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