What are we doing here?

I need to be clear up front. I don't claim to have answers to the problem, but I have a lot of experience with the scope of the problem. I see critically ill people with diabetes who are in the intensive care unit because they can't afford to get their insulin. On the other hand, I see 90 year old patients with multi-organ system failure who are getting advanced and expensive interventions because their families feel that "everything must be done." I see incredible inequities in physician reimbursement leading to an abundance of procedures and testing. I see the cost of the nursing manpower crisis on the morale of staff. I see hospitals trying to cut costs by decreasing the number of nurses caring for patients, and the cost of the resulting complications as patients who can't swallow come to the intensive care unit after inhaling dinner. And I see patients so bewildered and scared that medical mistakes can happen to them and their loved ones that they're afraid to even come into hospitals. I see patients with advanced disease whose faith so shaken in traditional medicine, its practitioners and their entrenched financial conflicts that they would prefer to take customized concoctions of herbs than intensively studied and validated compounds.

There is a problem and it needs to be fixed! We can't delay, and we can't let political special interest groups dictate the terms.

I know that people are tired of the endless debates - I am too. But people are suffering and dying unnecessarily and a lot of money is being spent in the wrong places. I'll be talking about what I see on the ground floor, and try to point readers to info that I find that captures all sides of this debate.

I'm new to this and spend most of my time taking care of patients and doing medical research so I don't get a chance to add all of the techno-savvy bells and whistles so I'm sorry if this isn't the most sophisticated blog. I'll do my best to add things as I learn them. I do see your comments and would appreciate any readers pointing out things of interest. I will do my best to get the links posted so that we can all become better informed. Thanks for reading!