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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: skinowski who wrote (284230)	12/14/2008 8:01:27 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793916

Thanks for the "on the scene" reply, skinowski! Somehow, I wondered some time ago if you might be a Hospitalist, as you seemed to know so much about the current situation... Your comment "... Could probably write a book about all this, except... who will read it?... :)" made me quietly hoot! OF COURSE, "someone" will read your book....most people today have NO idea that an important part of their medical team will be a Hospitalist.... Of course, unless someone has been in the hospital themselves recently, or visited a close loved one who has, they have NO idea of the ramifications of this... I sure as heck didn't. Since I am 'close to the situation' right now as I type, I note that there was not a word spoken in the article about the "patient" and what his/her rights, concerns, etc might be. Most of us who were born before 1950, and who haven't had much of anything wrong yet, still remember the "old days".... I remember going to the hospital in the 1960's though the 1980's We had an "Attending Physician" who was usually your own Doctor, and who called the shots unless he/she brought in a more knowledgeable "area specific - i.e. cardiac specialty doc, etc" Doc to help with the problem. Now, it appears that we have a "Primary Care Doc" who takes care of colds, flu, and everyday type problems. I have a Doc that is a PC Doc and works with the Hospitalist if I land in there with pneumonia, etc.... BUT is that true now? If you go into the ER, are you automatically now assigned a Hospitalist? Even if your regular Doc still does come to the hospital? WHO is in charge of your care? Does the patient automatically lose control of who cares for himself? How much of your regular Doc's records about you come to the "new to the patient" Hospitalist? How does this work? In the "old days" if a person didn't have insurance, they were cared for by an Intern or Resident of the Hospital. In the "old days (1960-1980's and maybe even the 1990's) if a person came to ER with whatever ailment, the hospital staff took care of the problem, until the regular "attending" doc came in, or that attending doc called in another specialist... Is this no longer how things are done? Has the patient lost all control of his/her medical destiny now? My husband is aghast if this is the way things are done now.... He has an Internist for many things, and a Cardiologist for any heart related issues. He specifically has this heart specialist on purpose, and has seen him for several years.... BTW, he is old enough for Medicare, but because he is an officer of his small company, and has chosen to keep the regular insurance he has, as one of his employees has cancer, and no access to any other insurance. Did things change for me because some of us are on Medicare, and some aren't? Have things changed and we didn't know it? If so, your book is an automatic best seller.....!

To: skinowski who wrote (284230)	12/14/2008 8:52:12 PM
From: KLP	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793916

BTW....Wouldn't we hope that the Docs AND the Patients should be part of the discussion about medical care? In general, I've been happy with the medical care I've received. This last incident is bring ugly thoughts forward..... Who is making the rules about who lives and who dies? Who should be allowed to have surgery and who isn't? If, as the Hospital article I posted earlier, suggests that the reason this is happening is because people were being treated and couldn't/didn't pay or have insurance for their treatment, WHY are we going to penalize everyone else in the country who does pay for insurance or can pay? We'd better hope that we have more and better than Tom Daschle on the side of our families and ourselves....