Post by Arthur Davenport on Dec 31, 2011 16:43:51 GMT -5
The wonderful world of "patient shocking"
Wait times in emergency rooms were so long that the government created a target mandating that patients be seen in less than four hours. Close your eyes for a second and imagine the convenience of being able to see a doctor in about the time it takes to watch the Super Bowl (including the halftime and pre-game shows.) Ahh, dare to dream. Of course, mandate or not, the government still couldn't hit those embarrassingly feeble targets. So now, tens of thousands of people who call the equivalent of 911 are held outside the hospital in a parked ambulance, sometimes for five hours or more, before being let into the emergency room. Why? Because the government-mandated four-hour clock doesn't officially start until they actually come through the doors. It's a clever way to cheat the system, but while ambulances sit idling (gobal-warming activists be aware, universal health care is killing the environment!), they are unable to go pick up some other poor shlub who really needs it. Of course, since the patient would be going to a government hospital anyway, it might be better for them to roll the dice with Web MD, some vodka, and a dirty steak knife.
When hospitals resemble amusements parks
The four-hour emergency-room target led to patients starting to feel like they were at a really boring government version of Six Flags amusement park. When you get in line for the newest, most-hyped roller coaster, you inevitably stand for hours in an everlasting snaking line of sweaty tourists before finally approaching what you think is the finish line. But when you walk into that room you realize that it is just another everlasting line snaking through even more sweaty over weight tourists wearing a spandex. That's basically what is happening in U.K. emergency rooms. To hit their targets, hospitals were waiting until just before the four-hour deadline was up before admitting patients, only to then make them suffer through another interminable wait once inside. Problem solved! The effect was the government target being hit, but without an actual improvement in quality of care, and at ten times the cost. This scheme worked especially well in combination with another government incentive that offered hospitals close to 1,000 $ for every patient admitted. Hospitals smartly figured, "Why treat patients without admitting them when we can walk them a few feet down the hall and get some free government cash?" The result was the patients who didn't even need hospital admission were admitted anyway (and usually released the same day,) making wait times worse for people who really did need it. Only in the world of government could we figure out a way to actually pay people more for worse service.
Dirty laundry
At Good Hope, a government-run hospital in the U.K., members of the housekeeping staff were reminded that washing bed sheets would cost 0.275 pence each (about 40 cents.) Their solution? Don't wash the sheets in between visitors, just turn them over! Surely those killer bacteria could never find their way all the way around the cotton! This policy was implemented soon after another government-run hospital found itself in trouble for spending a memo to the staff about saving $5 per day by "prescribing cheaper medicines, reducing the number of sterile packs used, cutting hospital tests and asking patients to bring drugs in from home."
Like pulling teeth to get pulled
How bad is dental insurance in the U.K.? Almost half of dentists say that they won't accept any patients using government health care. That has led to about 1 in 5 people deciding against any dental care because the cost is so high (wasn't it supposed to be free?). Six percent of patients have even resorted to "self-treatment", like pulling their own teeth and using superglue to re-attach crowns. Based on dismal scenarios like these, the government negotiated new contracts with dentists to improve dental care and make it more available. The result? Fifty-eight percent said the changes made care worse, and 84 percent said it didn't get any easier to find a dentist. The truth is that dental coverage in the U.K. is an absolute disaster. You can judge that by the statistics, or by a less scientific but just as effective method: their smiles.
Wait times in emergency rooms were so long that the government created a target mandating that patients be seen in less than four hours. Close your eyes for a second and imagine the convenience of being able to see a doctor in about the time it takes to watch the Super Bowl (including the halftime and pre-game shows.) Ahh, dare to dream. Of course, mandate or not, the government still couldn't hit those embarrassingly feeble targets. So now, tens of thousands of people who call the equivalent of 911 are held outside the hospital in a parked ambulance, sometimes for five hours or more, before being let into the emergency room. Why? Because the government-mandated four-hour clock doesn't officially start until they actually come through the doors. It's a clever way to cheat the system, but while ambulances sit idling (gobal-warming activists be aware, universal health care is killing the environment!), they are unable to go pick up some other poor shlub who really needs it. Of course, since the patient would be going to a government hospital anyway, it might be better for them to roll the dice with Web MD, some vodka, and a dirty steak knife.
When hospitals resemble amusements parks
The four-hour emergency-room target led to patients starting to feel like they were at a really boring government version of Six Flags amusement park. When you get in line for the newest, most-hyped roller coaster, you inevitably stand for hours in an everlasting snaking line of sweaty tourists before finally approaching what you think is the finish line. But when you walk into that room you realize that it is just another everlasting line snaking through even more sweaty over weight tourists wearing a spandex. That's basically what is happening in U.K. emergency rooms. To hit their targets, hospitals were waiting until just before the four-hour deadline was up before admitting patients, only to then make them suffer through another interminable wait once inside. Problem solved! The effect was the government target being hit, but without an actual improvement in quality of care, and at ten times the cost. This scheme worked especially well in combination with another government incentive that offered hospitals close to 1,000 $ for every patient admitted. Hospitals smartly figured, "Why treat patients without admitting them when we can walk them a few feet down the hall and get some free government cash?" The result was the patients who didn't even need hospital admission were admitted anyway (and usually released the same day,) making wait times worse for people who really did need it. Only in the world of government could we figure out a way to actually pay people more for worse service.
Dirty laundry
At Good Hope, a government-run hospital in the U.K., members of the housekeeping staff were reminded that washing bed sheets would cost 0.275 pence each (about 40 cents.) Their solution? Don't wash the sheets in between visitors, just turn them over! Surely those killer bacteria could never find their way all the way around the cotton! This policy was implemented soon after another government-run hospital found itself in trouble for spending a memo to the staff about saving $5 per day by "prescribing cheaper medicines, reducing the number of sterile packs used, cutting hospital tests and asking patients to bring drugs in from home."
Like pulling teeth to get pulled
How bad is dental insurance in the U.K.? Almost half of dentists say that they won't accept any patients using government health care. That has led to about 1 in 5 people deciding against any dental care because the cost is so high (wasn't it supposed to be free?). Six percent of patients have even resorted to "self-treatment", like pulling their own teeth and using superglue to re-attach crowns. Based on dismal scenarios like these, the government negotiated new contracts with dentists to improve dental care and make it more available. The result? Fifty-eight percent said the changes made care worse, and 84 percent said it didn't get any easier to find a dentist. The truth is that dental coverage in the U.K. is an absolute disaster. You can judge that by the statistics, or by a less scientific but just as effective method: their smiles.