What's Up Doc?

MSNBC.com has an article about who pays when the Hospital makes a mistake. If you said, "We do!" you win (or, I guess, lose). Increasingly, however, more and more hospitals are taking the "my bad" approach and taking the loss. 40 states, however, still pull the Hussein and charge you for the bullet, and here's my favorite quote. Its from Debbie Rogers vice president of quality and emergency services for the California Hospital Association

But if a surgeon operates on a person’s third cervical vertebrae instead of the fourth, and the hospital staff prepared the correct site, who should pay? Is that the hospital’s fault?”

You know, I'm not sure. But I am sure its not the patients fault. Lets review the players under here scenario. Hospital staff prepped the right site? Check? Patient out like a light? Check? Doctor operated on right site? Ooops. Now, using a simple diagram it looks to me like maybe the hospital could take the bill up with the doctor. I wonder how much more careful the doc would be if she (ha, didn't see that coming did you? No sexist am I.) had to pay the bill? If the people in charge of this dilemma (Hospital's and doctors) only see the patients wallet as the solution then I'm not convinced that we, the patients, are going to get the best solution.

The end of a dream?

The California Department of Health Services is moving to revoke the license of Martin Luther King Jr-Harbor Hospital (aka King-Drew, aka Killer King), effectively shutting the place down.

If you're new to the story a woman died in a pool of her own blood as a janitor mopped around her and as her boyfriend desperately called 911 for assistance while they were in the hospital. The kicker is that most of this is backed up by video and 911 tapes. This article goes into the unfortunate story.

My point with this article is the Killer King is a public hospital set up with the best of intentions. Originally, it was built as a response to the Watt's riots after one study finding was that lack of access to medical attention was one of the reason's for the riots. Another public hospital set up with the best intentions, Walter Reed recently made some news of its own. While there are many public hospitals that don't mock you as you die on the waiting room floor, nor do they put you in moldy rooms. However, I guarantee you that overwhelmingly, in any city, the public hospital is the least preferred option. This is a very important nugget to remember as we head into an election season where Universal Government Run Health Care promises to be a big topic.

Government's are not set up to run your health care. At best what governments do is big picture, broad strokes tasks. The finer points of addressing your particular medical needs is simply something it cannot do. For all the well meanings and best intentions there is no escaping the idea that the government is the sledge hammer trying to work on your health care microchip.

Its morally compelling to want to use the resources of the government to provide health care for all, no way does any caring person really feel that all US citizens deserve the best medical attention possible. The government has a lot of money and power, and surely should be able to make this happen. Right? Wrong. It's just not the right tool, and all the money and power won't change that. History is rife with military examples of this point, and many believe it is happening right now in Iraq. Good intentions, money and power do not guarantee success, not even close. The right idea, the willingness to do it get you there much faster. I know that we, as Americans, have the willingness, so the goal now is to find the right idea. Turning everything over to the feds is not it.

I don't like having an only "not so" post, I prefer to offer solutions rather than pure criticism. I'm making an exception here. One, because I don't want any solution offered up to take away from my focus on the idea that the Feds can't do it. And two, sometimes deleting an option by itself is helpful. Ask Sherlock.