T3hWiz0rd

Overtly attacking the true issue with health care:
Why yes, it’s true. The house bill passed and now they battle out a war against the senate to find some sort of formulation. Ironically, as they battle between whether or not health care should exist with a public option, and whether or not a woman should be allowed to control a child she does or does not want to have; we have fallen victim to the blatant curtain scam.

As we battle a losing war for health care reform (backed, ironically, by the health care lobby’s to begin with), the true horrors of medicine continue to unfold in the clinical realm. I do little to cover the fact that i work in a hospital, I used to be quite proud of this fact once upon a time. Of course, that was a time when I thought health care was a legitimate SERVICE to the community, not the pathetic SALES PITCH it has become today. I’ve seen emails that refer to patients as clients, customers, or “guests”, as if they somehow chose to get sick and have to be here. I’ve seen my fair share of people blatantly finding ways to scam insurance, and especially medicare/medicade by providing services to the patient they simply do not need or have insisted they do not want.

Time grew on me and I became aware of another issue within the field, something I call Predatory Caregivers. Now, it’s no ancient history that abuse in the health system has come and gone in spurts, but I feel that todays generation is flag shipping the line on this. As fewer doctors, nurses, and even low-end positions become available, people become more and more convinced that their job is secure, based on the fact that even if terminated there aren’t always immediate replacements. This has led to people blatantly being abusive to virtually everyone they come in contact with. Not to say just for patients, but they inject their workplace with venom and toxicity by bringing in personal problems or intentionally causing rifts just to cause them.

As Republicans single-handedly try to block this bill from passing, while dragging a few stupid democrats and one or two overly-”Christ-like” liberals with them, they try to sell to the American people that health “does work” in it’s current form, but needs something to help improve it. They claim that we flagship the highest nation in customer service (NOTE THAT STATEMENT! CUSTOMER SERVICE), low wait times, and quality care. They try and package socialization with Communism, genocide, murder, denial of care, and high mortality rates… All while those of us left in the industry who aren’t there for CUSTOMERS but for fellow Americans and patients of ALL needs and demographics, are left to suffer at the will and whim of a broken system. A system that isn’t just collapsing under mis-management, but it is authentically and destructively corrupt all the way down to the last person on the food chain.

Every day I enter a facility that is filled with a mostly-fantastic staff. However wonderful they may be, there is no denying the fact that everyone is over-worked, under appreciated, and grossly under paid by comparison to other facilities and states. We’re forced to find peace in the meaning, all the while we are told pay raises won’t be coming and we should “kiss the ground” that we “even have a job”. All the while, there are numerous people who got into health care for more-or-less one reason and one reason only: lucrative income, or guaranteed work. These people come in and stomp on the toes of every person who believes in original philosophies and understanding of health care. They undermine the productiveness of a floor by combining only hostility and grievance.

Recently, I was honored with working along side an RN who carried enough credentials to be considered the most educated person I ever met in the field of Nursing. She was a bright person but, inevitably, had communication pitfalls due to shyness. She entered into a field where she focused on one thing only: Patient care, not customer care. She was direct and excellent at her job, which led to her being targeted by the many people health care harbor that should not be there.

She was eventually pushed out of the door by a single, angry old nurse and her Patient Care Tech friend, who orchestrated several attempts to make her job miserable. It’s a sad day when a decorated and distinguished member of the profession is pushed out the door not by management, not by performance issues, but the fact that a TECH didn’t like her. A tech… Allow me to pinpoint the exact definition of PCT, as I’ve been there myself. You’re an asswiper who hits the reset button on call lights. END. Never in my career path did I target and try to attack nurses from excelling, and I never imagined myself undermining a nurse in order to gain on my own personal agenda. Perhaps this issue was the #1 reason I am writing this.

People who refute health care reform should begin to look into the internals of the health system. They think that payment could be bad under socialization? It can’t be any worse than the ZERO dollar payments we’re receiving now due to people being unemployed or unable/unwilling to repay their bills. It also can’t harm us to have someone higher than a CEO to answer to, in light of misappropriated funds and unjustified billing circumstances. These DO exist in hospitals, primarily because there is a lax in oversight.

Perhaps the best thing that could come from reform is that people who only enter medicine and nursing for financial gains may begin to look elsewhere. Now, I know what you’re about to say; “but John! This is capitalism, it mandates reimbursement for services! People should earn what they are entitled to!” Yes and no… I think, personally, Free Enterprise and Open Capitalism were two of the worst things to ever happen to America, short of the two-party political system that is eroding whatever good is left here. When we deal with human life, the value of care, and the morals of love and compassion; who should be deciding what that is worth? Humana, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, or Healthnet? Are these really the people that should be determining the value of care? Pfizer? Should they really be telling what someone is worth?

Well, perhaps in the ideal world, yes they’d be able to. Because maybe in the ideal world they’d be legitimate providers of services to patients not customers. However, we live far from the ideal world where humans are fair and just; we live in this world, where they are corrupt, evil, and self-focused. When this is the true identity and masked face of most of your amazing “free market, open capitalism” system, I find it hard to confidently trust these people making choices that are best decided by professionals in the field. Professionals that aren’t here to see me as a paycheck, but to provide a service because they UNDERSTAND the need for this. They accept that, while they make a fantastic salary (and believe me, most do.), I am here because I need them. In my vulnerable state i want someone who cares about my needs and what is best for my age-specific, condition specific care. I don’t want an executive patsy looking down at my wallet and going “Well, I’m sorry, Sir. You’re sick, alright… But THIS just won’t cut the cake.”

What American’s need to open their eyes and realize is this: By allowing our system to continue the way it has, we put not just our insurance control, but our direct care in the hands of people who sometimes may not care about our best interests. People who, despite common sense and logic, may take pictures of you in the ICU and post them on facebook, as happened in the University Hospital here!

When you are at your weakest, do you want someone who sees you as a portion of their paycheck? Someone who may very well not care about you in any other sense beyond what is legally mandated by them? Would you tolerate someone walking into your room while you’re ill and saying “What do you want?” as if you interrupted their evening? If not, then why are we accepting this now? Why is this currently an acceptable pattern of care when the rest of the world displays to us there is better? If you doubt my accuracy on this behavior, I challenge you to come spend an evening on my Unit and see just how impartial the staff REALLY is to patient needs… I’d love for you to doubt it after that.

Part of a public plan would also mean more agencies would answer more directly to the government, putting tighter oversight onto the facilities and mandating minimum standards be up kept. (But what about The Joint Commission and State? They investigate and mandate us!) Perhaps, but do they really? Any of us that work in the industry are aware of hundreds of Commission and State violations EVERY WEEK, and we are told in advance when Commission and State reviews are to be held, allowing the facility to prepare (and they do, frantically) for their inspections. To me, this is a deterioration of safe guards. If you know somethings coming, how can you be caught off guard and corrected for your errors? How can those practicing and performing poorly be reprimanded and terminated if no one can actually stop the behavior, or everyone is too indifferent to? If the Commission is the best we have to look forward to, American health care is going to get much worse before it ever gets better…

And as far as “we can’t trust the government” goes… I want all of you reading this to reflect on one VERY SERIOUS opinion. YOU control the government by vote and petition, YOU mandate it by your constitutional rights. IF AT ANY POINT YOU FEEL THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT TRUSTWORTHY OR COMPETENT, AND YOU FAIL TO ENACT ON THIS, YOU FAIL TO PRACTICE YOUR DUTIES AS AN AMERICAN. That’s right, I said you fail to practice your duties as an American… Because primarily, this nation guarantees us the right to control the government to our liking. What this means is that if we can get our stuff together and PASS a comprehensive public health option, we can also engage in how it is ran and operated. We can oust the people not making proper choices for it and, by mass majority, estate those we think ARE capable of doing it. Incompetency within the government should not deter us from UTILIZING the government primarily because we ARE the government. If you feel at any point and time that the government has let you down and you did not stand up, protest, send angry letters, and fight tooth-and-nail, you have thereby said your constitutional rights don’t matter and you’re AFRAID of the men in power.

So before you decide a public option is a bad and terrible choice, remember this: We’re already in the worst-case scenario where 14,000 Americans will lose their health insurance EACH DAY, being forced to put off essential care and ignore the early warning signs of disease and critical conditions. This year, we’ll lose thousands more of our neighbors and friends simply because they were too poor to afford the red-carpet treatment. Someone will lose a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister; a mother and a father. Someone you love may one day be on that list of people deemed “too poor” to care for. Trust me when I say that when this day comes, you will see our broken system in a new and profound light of disgust, anguish, hate, and frustration… Just as I have….

Dedicated to Nancy Ward, December 2005. You were and are loved in our hearts and souls.