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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Navigating the current healthcare system requires a high degree of learning, research, and patience. Urgent care facilities may or may not have doctors available, most will have nurse practitioners. Insurance companies don't like to pay for an emergency room when an urgent care will do, so you have to start there unless you are in really bad shape. I went to an urgent care one time and they did an IV, and determined that I needed hospitalization. My wife could have driven me the 7 miles to the hospital but because of the IV I had to go by ambulance. Of course, the insurance refused my claim for the $1,400 ride. It took several phone calls to the ambulance Company, insurance company, and urgent care to get it paid. I have type 2 diabetes and recently started to take my blood glucose. With my insurance the machine at the pharmacy was only $30, but for 100 test strips it was $110, and that was with the insurance paying 80%! Later I found that I can get the exact same 100 strips for $29 at Amazon.
Doctors kill as many people as they heal. These days, things are mostly a roll of the dice, I've had exactly one good doctor in the last 10 years. My preference is usually for a nurse practitioner because they will listen and actually let you contribute to figuring out what is best. So many doctors just will not listen, I've fired a lot of them for that very reason. It's MY health, and I want answers to questions, and different treatment options.
Having worked in health care, I largely blame managed care for this debacle. There were times on our in-patient orthopedic rehab ward at Savannah Memorial Hospital that a patient's insurance would only pay for 15 minutes of rehab. You can imagine how much you can do in that short a time.
We were on that ward 5 days a week and one Saturday a mo from 7 AM (one hr before we started, to get ahead of the paper work) until 5 PM, almost every lunch was a working lunch w/ someone giving a presentation, and we often stayed an extra hr after work to finish up the new paper work. And management was still instituting cutbacks and freezes on hiring. Being a Memorial hospital, we actually had it better than many other hospitals.
Doctors kill as many people as they heal. These days, things are mostly a roll of the dice, I've had exactly one good doctor in the last 10 years. My preference is usually for a nurse practitioner because they will listen and actually let you contribute to figuring out what is best. So many doctors just will not listen, I've fired a lot of them for that very reason. It's MY health, and I want answers to questions, and different treatment options.
Having worked in health care, I largely blame managed care for this debacle. There were times on our in-patient orthopedic rehab ward at Savannah Memorial Hospital that a patient's insurance would only pay for 15 minutes of rehab. You can imagine how much you can do in that short a time.
We were on that ward 5 days a week and one Saturday a mo from 7 AM (one hr before we started, to get ahead of the paper work) until 5 PM, almost every lunch was a working lunch w/ someone giving a presentation, and we often stayed an extra hr after work to finish up the new paper work. And management was still instituting cutbacks and freezes on hiring. Being a Memorial hospital, we actually had it better than many other hospitals.
I think you need to substantiate that with some data.
Life guards and firemen do "save" lives...Doctors, at best, delay death in most instances....Everybody dies. Nobody gets out of this alive. The only mystery is when and how.
There was a famous study published a decade or so ago claiming medical mistakes account for some large percentage of deaths. They were working under the very false assumption, as does the American System of Injustice, that all diseases have cures and that all cures must work 100% of the time or else, they conclude, a "mistake" must have been made....Sick people are going to die without care, so any care that doesn't work is just Mother Nature doing her thing. Argue with her about it.
Doctors kill as many people as they heal. These days, things are mostly a roll of the dice, I've had exactly one good doctor in the last 10 years. My preference is usually for a nurse practitioner because they will listen and actually let you contribute to figuring out what is best. So many doctors just will not listen, I've fired a lot of them for that very reason. It's MY health, and I want answers to questions, and different treatment options.
Having worked in health care, I largely blame managed care for this debacle. There were times on our in-patient orthopedic rehab ward at Savannah Memorial Hospital that a patient's insurance would only pay for 15 minutes of rehab. You can imagine how much you can do in that short a time.
We were on that ward 5 days a week and one Saturday a mo from 7 AM (one hr before we started, to get ahead of the paper work) until 5 PM, almost every lunch was a working lunch w/ someone giving a presentation, and we often stayed an extra hr after work to finish up the new paper work. And management was still instituting cutbacks and freezes on hiring. Being a Memorial hospital, we actually had it better than many other hospitals.
Ok, I give up. Why is a "Memorial" hospital better off than other hospitals?
Doctors kill as many people as they heal. These days, things are mostly a roll of the dice, I've had exactly one good doctor in the last 10 years.
So, if your above statements were true, then we'd be reading the post of a corpse. You've had more than one doctor - and doctors kill as many people as they heal. The odds of you surviving is pretty low and the more doctors you have, the better the odds that you'd be in a grave somewhere by now.
Therefore...
You must be incorrect. Doctors heal many more people than they kill. And it is your perception that's defective, not the medical field.
The last time I went to urgent care (about a year ago) I had broken my left upper arm! I was pretty surprised by that but I was seen quickly and efficiently. They referred me quickly and all went as planned there. I went to some PT and that went well too. No complaints.
I do think that as we get older, things can become more serious more quickly, and we have an aging population in many areas. For instance, I think I probably fell and broke my arm because I am older (62).
I am headed to 91 and now two good events.
Unfortunately for me was lock box for front door after wife's death,police as they left said are you alone I said yes and I said yes,he said get a lock box.
My Pension provider,Nokia on new contract has provided us with lifetime First Alert for life free,these are programed for falls. tied in to 911.
Urgent care? This has been perfect for our adult son with special needs who still resides at home. Wait to see a doctor at the clinic for an ear infection? 10 days. Wait to see Nurse Practitioner? Some time today. We generally practice homeopathic medicine, and the urgent care fills in the gap!
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