American Healthcare

My experience with healthcare in this country has been rarely good. My first experience was when I moved to Austin, Texas in 2000. From the time I was 22 or so (1996) I developed an acute case of bronchitis for two to three weeks each year. When I moved to Texas I had the worse case of it since it began. It lasted a month, each day consisted of heavy hacking coughs every few minutes and morning rituals with the bathroom sink I won't even go into here.

I decided to go to a doctor. I was under an HMO for a company that Ion Storm signed up with, and a Primary Care Physician, who I had to see to be referred to any specialist. In this case the young physician saw me, listened patiently but unemotionally, and gave me a bag of Zyrtec to take home. Apparently allergies were the cause of the bronchitis.

I took the Zyrtec with no result. The bronchitis was still there. I then went to the doctor again who perscribed some antibiotics, and the bronchitis went away but resumed the following year. Same symptoms. I picked a different PCP, filled out many forms and made many phone calls. This time I thought a woman's perspective might get me better results. The lady again listened patiently but unemotionally and did the exact same thing the previous doctor did.

Frustrated and walking back to the reception area, I noticed a room lined with "thank you" letters from schoolchildren. Most of the walls were covered with them. I asked who the doctor was, and the receptionst replied "he's full". I insisted on an appointment, and apparently he wasn't THAT full, for he agreed to see me.

This doctor (regrettably names have escaped me) was different. I told him the stories of the first two doctors and immediately he said "we'll figure it out. We won't stop until we find out what it is." He sounded genuinely interested in solving my problem. He sounded, oh boy, what a concept, like he cared.

I was blood tested, X-rayed, and finally skin tested for allergies in the end. It turns out that it was allergies but only a series of shots would prevent the bronchitis from returning. At least in this case I knew I was allergic primarily to dust and secondarily to animal dander. It explained a great deal about my previous episodes.

This sort of situation has taken place quite a few times. The question, as with "why aren't invoices paid sooner?", is why? Doctors get into the field with a lot of passion and are frustrated themselves with a bad system? Doctors get into the field just for the money and couldn't care less about patients unless they're dying? I only convinced of one thing, that each doctor has their own approach, and that the approach isn't managed very well by the educational system that trains them as well as the management system that hires and pays them. Write in with your thoughts, readers.

Comments

[Bryan]

It's sad. I know of someone that had a virtually identical experience only because her regular PCP was unavailable.

She wasted months on ineffective medications prescribed by a doctor who was seemingly self-confident yet emotionless. It was as if the doctor was "going through the motions"; she might as well have been a number at the deli. Unfortunately, allergic reactions, asthma and bronchitis are a bit more critical than thinly-sliced ham.

The only key is to find a doctor that you trust and STAY WITH THEM. Not unlike a good mechanic or......... butcher ;).

[Drew]

Psssh, just pay one visit to Kaiser Permanente. You'll REALLY feel insignificant afterwards!

[Drew]

Psssh, just pay one visit to Kaiser Permanente. You'll REALLY feel insignificant afterwards!

[Jeremiah]

Brandon:

I work as an "independent" in the professional music arts: I have no idea what this "health insurance" is that you speak of. I pay cash.

A cash-paying customer gets a different overall experience with the health industry, I think. I can walk into just about any clinic, say I'm paying cash, and will see a doctor within about ten minutes. When I used to be on a health plan, I had to schedule an appt DAYS in advance, and still had a 45 minute wait.

But I digress - your question was about doctors and why they can seem so uncaring. IN MY EXPERIENCE (I used to be in IT for a large medical corp), it's the system that supports them, not the Dr's themselves. Having said that, modern corporate medicine services tend to attract a kind of individual with less-than-stellar attitudes about overall morals. Read: I think corpora-care tends to have a larger percentage of caregivers that are OK with screwing you over.

99.9999% percent of Dr's actually give a rat's ass about their patients and the quality of care they deliver. I've been in meetings where Dr's have voiced their disapproval at the corporate infrastructure supporting them: believe me, they're as pissed as their patients. But the system eventually wears them down so much it's just easier to move the maximum number of patients daily. There are LOTS of reasons for this: high turnover in nursing and administration posts.

Digression: Nurses.

Nurses have the worst job in healthcare: they often are the ones delivering the actual care to patients, and often have the least amount of training. Nurses are usually in pools, so Dr's often do not have a steady staff around them. Nurses are usually not trained in patient psychology or bedside manner: overall, they are terrible caregivers. The fact that nursing is an underpaid (IMHO) position means it's often staffed by people for whom English (and American social traditions) are secondary - this creates awkward and uncomfortable situations in caregiving relationships.

Anyhoo, i've typed far too much in response here - glad to see you're posting again, though :)

[Simon]

hey there! i must say that u create AWESOME music alexander! ive played the first unreal games and deus ex and all of those games r legendary mainly because they have the support of good music... sometimes an otherwise boring "level" of a game can get enjoyable anyway thanks to the music :-)

but anyways... what i was gonna say is that i live in sweden and this country is famous for its welfare qualities... hospital care, medications and threatment usually dont cost more than $25 for the initial visit to the doctor... and when medication is required then perhaps 90% of the cost is deducted from its real price... when u have to stay at a hospital for surgery u only pay a small sum for the food ...everything excellent so far...

...but the bottom side of all this is that when the government needs to make savings it always seems to affect the medical care...

the consequence becomes that the doctors try their hardest to declare all patients as completly healthy and rather recommend patients to change to a healthier lifestyle than give them real threatment for their conditions unless they can provide hard proof that they r really i'll... a broken arm would be a obvious case with hard proof, but when it isnt possible to make a final diagnosis without any investigation they usually take the easy way out and tell u to go home and return in another week/month if it havent become better. it doesnt care if u say that uve been like this for several weeks. and when u get back there the 2nd time they try to repeat with the same procedure, and they'll probably succeed... i think they drag out on the process in hopes that ppl will give up in the meantime... one time i visited the doctor it was quite emergent, and still i got sent back home 2 times in a row... and when they tried it the 3rd time i really got pissed off and made some loud complaints, and then - finally - i could get some threatment... and its always like this nowadays with swedish medical care...

there r some simple reasons why there no longer is any capacity for swedish patients in swedish hospitals but i will not go there...

p.s. i hope that u dont forget completly about making game music now that u have other priorities... your composing/producing skills r most welcome in this (nowadays) mostly dry VGM scene