Medicine Gone Mad
What is wrong with the healthcare system today? In my opinion, the system is all about making money, and has lost the focus on prevention and treatment of disease.
Let's start with the pharmaceutical companies. I both condemn them and pity them at the same time. There are so many amazing medicines available today to treat a wide-variety of ailments. Shouldn't those medications be able to stand on their own merit?
Why do the pharmaceutical companies have to hire thousands of sales people to repeatedly visit every doctor's office to convince them to use the medication? Why do these sales people essentially try to bribe the doctors in to choosing their product by providing all kinds of free branded office supplies, and even meals! Yes, meals! I've been in doctor's offices while the pharmaceutical sales rep wheels in a cart of breakfast foods for the staff of the office.
Meanwhile, the paying patient is sitting in the waiting room... and waiting... while the doctors and nurses meet with the sales reps. Why do the sales reps get right in, while we have to sit and wait? Is it because the food might get cold? Remind me to start bringing fresh cookies when I go to the doctor!
I would encourage my doctors to ignore the sales reps and read the journals of medicine instead. I want them making decisions that would affect my health based on what is the best available medical treatment, not which sales rep brings in the best pastries. Get rid of the sales reps, and the pharmaceutical companies could save a boatload of money.
But I also feel sorry for the pharmaceutical companies. We as a society have come to expect perfection. If we are prescribe a medicine and it has any negative effects, the first thing we do is run to a lawyer and file suit for millions of dollars. And hey, let's make them class action suits, where essentially the lawyers make all the money through the financial punitive damages. Who wins there, other than the lawyers?
But why should we expect perfection anyway? Certainly we would not encourage bad medicines, but there comes a point where you've tested everything you can think of, and the benefits outweigh the potential risks. That does not justify the multi-million dollar punitive lawsuits.
Now let's move on to medical malpractice in general. Locally, a woman was just awarded several million dollars in a suit against an OB/GYN. You'd think it was a pregnancy or reproductive related issue, right? Nope. The doctor failed to diagnose her with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I'm sorry, but unless that tick bit her you-know-where, she didn't belong at the OB/GYN. She belonged at an internist of family doctor. Or an urgent care center... or a hospital. OB/GYNs are specially trained to treat pregnancy and reproductive issues.
But I've known far to many women who just consider their OB/GYN their general doctor, and go there for any cough, sneeze, or sniffle. The patient should be responsible for that bad decision, not the OB/GYN. If I've got a heart problem, I shouldn't go to a podiatrist! We adults are the first ones responsible for decisions regarding our medical care. We can't hold others responsible when we should first be accountable for our own decisions!
But let's say that it had been a GYN-related condition that she had sued for. Millions of dollars as the judgment? Mostly in punitive damages? I think that punitive damages are totally out of hand. Why is it that we are satisfied that the doctor has been punished when we are handed a lifetime of money? While that doctor is then free to go and make the same mistakes on another patient? But hey, I got my money, so what do I care!
Rather than assess punitive financial damages, why not go after their medical license? You screw up, you get your license suspended, or you can only work for a certain probabtionary period of time under the direct supervision of another doctor. And if it's a severe enough error, the license is gone for good. THAT is what is going to help future patients!
Instead, doctors have to carry enormous amounts of personal injury insurance. Who has to pay for that? The consumer! Through direct medical costs and through increased insurance costs. But hey, someone got their millions of dollars in punitive damages... yet I and everyone else in the community are the ones who in the end are paying for it.
There are many amazing lawyers out there. MANY. But the personal-injury thing is out of control. So I guess to paraphrase Shakespeare, "The first thing we do is get rid of all the personal-injury lawyers!" And the pharmaceutical sales reps!
Let's start with the pharmaceutical companies. I both condemn them and pity them at the same time. There are so many amazing medicines available today to treat a wide-variety of ailments. Shouldn't those medications be able to stand on their own merit?
Why do the pharmaceutical companies have to hire thousands of sales people to repeatedly visit every doctor's office to convince them to use the medication? Why do these sales people essentially try to bribe the doctors in to choosing their product by providing all kinds of free branded office supplies, and even meals! Yes, meals! I've been in doctor's offices while the pharmaceutical sales rep wheels in a cart of breakfast foods for the staff of the office.
Meanwhile, the paying patient is sitting in the waiting room... and waiting... while the doctors and nurses meet with the sales reps. Why do the sales reps get right in, while we have to sit and wait? Is it because the food might get cold? Remind me to start bringing fresh cookies when I go to the doctor!
I would encourage my doctors to ignore the sales reps and read the journals of medicine instead. I want them making decisions that would affect my health based on what is the best available medical treatment, not which sales rep brings in the best pastries. Get rid of the sales reps, and the pharmaceutical companies could save a boatload of money.
But I also feel sorry for the pharmaceutical companies. We as a society have come to expect perfection. If we are prescribe a medicine and it has any negative effects, the first thing we do is run to a lawyer and file suit for millions of dollars. And hey, let's make them class action suits, where essentially the lawyers make all the money through the financial punitive damages. Who wins there, other than the lawyers?
But why should we expect perfection anyway? Certainly we would not encourage bad medicines, but there comes a point where you've tested everything you can think of, and the benefits outweigh the potential risks. That does not justify the multi-million dollar punitive lawsuits.
Now let's move on to medical malpractice in general. Locally, a woman was just awarded several million dollars in a suit against an OB/GYN. You'd think it was a pregnancy or reproductive related issue, right? Nope. The doctor failed to diagnose her with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I'm sorry, but unless that tick bit her you-know-where, she didn't belong at the OB/GYN. She belonged at an internist of family doctor. Or an urgent care center... or a hospital. OB/GYNs are specially trained to treat pregnancy and reproductive issues.
But I've known far to many women who just consider their OB/GYN their general doctor, and go there for any cough, sneeze, or sniffle. The patient should be responsible for that bad decision, not the OB/GYN. If I've got a heart problem, I shouldn't go to a podiatrist! We adults are the first ones responsible for decisions regarding our medical care. We can't hold others responsible when we should first be accountable for our own decisions!
But let's say that it had been a GYN-related condition that she had sued for. Millions of dollars as the judgment? Mostly in punitive damages? I think that punitive damages are totally out of hand. Why is it that we are satisfied that the doctor has been punished when we are handed a lifetime of money? While that doctor is then free to go and make the same mistakes on another patient? But hey, I got my money, so what do I care!
Rather than assess punitive financial damages, why not go after their medical license? You screw up, you get your license suspended, or you can only work for a certain probabtionary period of time under the direct supervision of another doctor. And if it's a severe enough error, the license is gone for good. THAT is what is going to help future patients!
Instead, doctors have to carry enormous amounts of personal injury insurance. Who has to pay for that? The consumer! Through direct medical costs and through increased insurance costs. But hey, someone got their millions of dollars in punitive damages... yet I and everyone else in the community are the ones who in the end are paying for it.
There are many amazing lawyers out there. MANY. But the personal-injury thing is out of control. So I guess to paraphrase Shakespeare, "The first thing we do is get rid of all the personal-injury lawyers!" And the pharmaceutical sales reps!
posted by Susan | 1:33 PM
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