2 doctors walk into a bar

I was reading a fascinating article, published over at medscape. Before you ask, yes, I stay current on the medical journals. Despite the frequent urges to yell at the screen or send off nasty e-mails I find that occasionally, someone over there will get it right.

Not today though.

In a article written by a vascular surgeon and a cardiologist they discuss why the health care costs of America are skyrocketing and what can be done about it. "Dollar wasting" they call it.

One of the citations they make is of how salaried surgeons at a New York hospital were ordered to increase their admissions and operations by 20% or face a pay cut. They (the authors) think its crazy for every hospital to want to be in the black.

What a crock.

There are so many things wrong with that line of thinking, from the hospital viewpoint and the surgeon viewpoint that figuring out who is right becomes moot. In the end, the patient suffers.

Medical mistakes are out of control in this country. In the land of freedom and opportunity 7 jumbo jets worth of people die every year from medical mistakes. Hospitals are run by executives, bottom-liners responsible to a board, not to the son or daughter of the patients they malign in order to cut corners.

They don't get it now, nor will they, because their system of 'health care' propagates itself on the sick. More people sick, more money for them.

Until we begin demanding and paying for people to keep us healthy, not just symptom-free but actually healthy, we (and our kids) are in big trouble.