I had an accident recently in Cabo. A group of friends were messing around on Yamaha Rhino Overgrown 4 wheelers. The thing weighs a thousand pounds. The front left blew on a big rock and dug in, flipped it, roll bar, but no footwell, crushed my leg. That's the story. In the famed words of Paul Harvey, here's "the rest of the story."
Just to put things into context, In Cabo San Lucas Mexico, I arrived at the Hospital emergency room and, after filling out a short form and giving them my credit card I saw the (American trained) Dr. in about 5 minutes. I had X-rays taken and analyzed (twice) within 20 minutes and my wound was cleaned and dressed. I think we were there about an hour and I left with my X-Rays. No broken bones.
About 9 days later I had some new swelling and pain, Lisa called Primacare at 5:15 - they said there was an hour and a half wait - but that I could get on the list and they would call. At 6:45 I decided to just go over - since I was sure they would call at anytime. I went over - filled out the paperwork and waited until 8:00 and decided that I needed to leave to put Kyle to bed. The lady was polite and said that I should come back in the morning, but that they opened at 8am and I should get there at 7:30 to be the first in line. I was the first in line. Unfortunately my paperwork (at least 8 pages) could not be found so I had to fill it out again. I was seen around 8:30. The Dr. was pleasant a D.O. and said I needed to go to the emergency room at Presbyterian for an ultrasound for possible blood clot. I arrived at Presbyterian at 9:15am. Even though I had been admitted to Presby in the past I had to fill out the same paperwork. There were only two people in the emergency room when I arrived. About 9:45am they took my blood pressure and temperature and weighed me. Sat for about half an hour. A nurse practitioner asked me a few questions, sat for a while, then they walked me into a room to put on a gown. The Dr. came in ordered the ultrasound around 10:30. The bursar came in to take my insurance, license, and credit card and came back about 45 minutes later. By 11:30 I was getting irritated. I asked them how long it would be and they could not tell me. Apparently the ultrasound technician had taken lunch. It could be 1pm. At 12:30, I put on my clothes, thanked the nurses at the nurses station and left.
I rarely use our health care system for these reasons. I have been needing to see the Dr. for a skin lesion (probably a recurrence of basal cell carcinoma). But instead I put it off because it is such a hassle to go, get in line, fill out the same forms, get a referral, etc etc.. I pay thousands of dollars a year as an employee and an employer for substandard or no care. My biggest concern in the current political climate is that others feel the same way and in their attempt to do something about it, it becomes more expensive and worse. To think that the federal government will fix the under and uninsured, fix the health care information systems, fix the wait times, fix the payer problems, is crazy. Canada and Mexico are not the answer - I was recently in Vancouver and the cab driver was complaining about the narionalized health care system. Apparently because of a shortage of health care professionals (can you say regulation/nationalization?), his dad could not get an appointment to get a catheter removed for 3 months. Mexico is not the answer - well it is for me - because at least there when I flashed my Platinum card I went to the front of the line. If you can't pay, you don't get squat. That certainly is not the answer in a humane society. So what is?
My only concern is that the proposals by Obama and Hillary will introduce more cost, more regulation, and make it worse. Well, my other concern is that I have a blood clot in my swollen leg and ahhhhhrrgg.......flatline.
Don't be so quick to downplay the way the rest of the modern, western world does things, ie, some form of single payer system. The fact remains that life expectancy in most of those countries is higher than in the US - so it's not as if our system has paid tremendous dividends. And on a cost per patient basis, we are INCREDIBLY inefficient. Part of the problem is our expectations, too. Doctors expect to make $500K a year, patients expect heroic measures and demand punishment (Lawsuits) for every mistake.
Posted by: Henry Rosen | February 04, 2008 at 06:58 PM
You know-- it's this kind of story that makes me sad about the standards of care in this country. Or rather-- that there is NO standard.
It's completely hit or miss.
I've seen people get incredible care at JPS, and substandard care from Arlington Memorial. I've seen CareNow clear up a child's ear infection with no problem at all, and I've seen a woman have to have the lower part of her leg amputated because someone at CareNow told her to go home and "wait to see if the swelling went down".. when in fact-- she very clearly had been bitten by a black widow spider.
Why can't we just see a simple, across-the-board level of care? I'm TOTALLY willing to pay for that. Guess I'll just stick with my high-deductible, low-premium plan allowed by my current employer and hope that when Isaac breaks his arm in a karate sparring class, that I'll catch one of these facilities on a GOOD day.
*sigh*
Posted by: Rosanna Appelt | February 07, 2008 at 03:48 PM