health care policy
mementomori | August 20, 2007In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars.
Bravo! It's about time the government started sticking it to hospitals that don't care about the preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals. Not paying for the cost of care associated with preventable errors in hospitals is one way to send a message, although I would have preferred public hangings, which is a much…
mementomori | August 5, 2007I had the unique occasion this weekend (which is a euphemism for "I was stuck on-call") to review a summary outlining the details of a guest appearance made by a patient to the hospital's emergency room. The individual in question, prior to being admitted with the diagnosis of some type of frightful ailment or another, first visited the E. R. Myself (playing the role of "Covering Physician" while lounging around the nurses' station like a hobo in an Alabama diner, with only a paucity of listlessness I might add) decided to read this report.
It was the most amazing thing I had laid eyes on…
mementomori | March 13, 2007"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few."
-Matthew 9:37
Entering the working world produces many emotions, such as anxiety over one's performance, quiet resignation when dealing with peculiar co-workers, even that flat feeling one gets when shlepping home after a weary afternoon in the office.
These sentiments pale, however, with the thought of losing one's job. No one wants to live with the fear that they might be downsized or outsourced, yet reading the headlines reminds us that job losses continue to plague our country. Do these concerns ever apply to members of the medical…
mementomori | February 12, 2007Have five minutes to spare? Then read on:
If you are interested in the reform of health care funding I recommend this article by the economist Arnold Kling. I don't agree with all of his ideas, such as citizens petitioning a "compensation fund" (run by government workers, I assume - yikes!) for reimbursement of medical expenses related to what Kling calls "tragic medical conditions." As Kling writes:
In determining the size of the lump-sum payment, the compensation fund would take into account the typical cost of treating such a person. However, other factors also would come into play.…