Battling Healthcare

I’ve owned my own business for many years. Before I began my work in patient advocacy and empowerment, I was a marketer, and advised dozens of businesses of all sizes (from individual professional services like lawyers and therapists to large corporations like GE and Kodak.) I get business, I understand development of income streams and I fully realize that profitability is always the goal among these businesses.

But I also know that profitability and business models are at the very heart at what is WRONG with healthcare. No matter what the problem with the system, its roots are grounded in the need to make money by someone.

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An article in my local newspaper makes me wake up and take notice of a real problem for women who, after breast cancer surgeries, wish to have their breast(s) reconstructed.

Mind you — we aren’t talking about breast enhancement surgery. No discussion of “boob jobs” here.

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Dr. Betsy McCaughey thinks so. And states her case quite well in her testimony before the Congress of the United States.

Who’s Betsy McCaughey? Dr. Betsy McCaughey is the founder, president, CEO, chief honcho of RID: Reduce Hospital Deaths. She founded her organization in 2004 in reasponse to the alarming growth in the deaths of Americans due to hospital acquired infections.

She is a health policy expert, having concentrated on health legislation during her four years as Lt. Governor of New York State during the Pataki years. And how all she wants to do is save lives by making hospitals accountable for preventing the spread of infections which kill their patients.

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It’s a bit of a cliché — kids get sick and Mom takes care of them. Dad gets sick — and Mom takes care of him. Gramma and Grampa get sick — Mom takes care of them, too. Even TV commercials capitalize on the concept.

But when Mom gets sick, who takes care of her?

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Unlike the other work I do, this blog crosses the border, back and forth, between Canada and the US. You may not realize it, but our host, Hart and the HEN Network, is based in Canada. What I enjoy about my participation here is that it encourages me to think more globally than I typically do with my US-focused work. (thanks Hart!)

I explain all that today because news a few weeks ago about what the laws in Canada will allow, or not allow regarding the legal permission for Canadian doctors to apologize to patients for mistakes they have made, forced me to think of doctors and their apologies on a much broader basis.

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… you probably think they don’t affect you, because you only pick up your prescriptions at the local pharmacy, or get samples from your doctor….

But you would be wrong. Counterfeit drugs may be found in your own medicine cabinet — and you have no way of knowing they are counterfeit.

Surprised? I was too — and because I too often have to be so cynical in my work — I never should have been so surprised. Why? Because so much of healthcare is about money. And counterfeiting is all about money — making it for the perpetrators, and saving it for those who have to pay, whether that’s a pharmacy or a health insurer. And who’s money and lives is it costing? Ours, because we are the patients.

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If you are among the people who read my blogs on a regular basis, then you already know how dangerous healthcare can be. Sad, because healthcare is intended to IMPROVE lives, certainly not hurt them.

In fact, healthcare can be dangerous, sometimes randomly through mistakes and missteps. It can be dangerous for what is ignored or through mere laziness. Other times it’s dangerous because of access questions — if you don’t have the right insurance, or if you are lacking insurance, you don’t have the same options as others.

I do not believe any provider or payer ever sets out to make it intentionally dangerous, but then, the road to heaven, etc etc….

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It was revealed this week in documents released by Merck over the Vioxx debacle that we were all scammed — patients, doctors, stockholders and legitimate drug researchers.

If you aren’t familiar with the Merck and Vioxx scandal, let me bring you up to date.

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I have a master’s degree. But no one calls me Master Trisha (nor do they call me mistress!)

I have friends who are lawyers and nobody calls them Esquire Jim or Esquire Jane.

I have a great accountant, but no one calls her Counter Maryann or CPA Maryann.

But every doctor I know is called doctor. And that title is usually accompanied by a last name, not a first. Doctor Smith or Doctor Brown… a sign of respect.

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As Every Patient’s Advocate, I read mainstream media, medical and healthcare news all day every day. Study results, reports of medical errors, interviews — you name it, I read it!

One thing I’ve learned over time is that often the headlines, and sometimes the opening paragraphs of any given article, aren’t exactly representative of the real story.

It’s understandable. The people who write the headlines aren’t usually the people who write the stories and articles, too. The headline writer’s job is to condense information in such a way as to suck people into the rest of the story. They “sell” the article to the reader, so it makes sense for them to be sometimes inflammatory, often intriguing, and revealing of only part of the story.

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