The principle issue in this country today, with regard to medicine, is
not any particular form of research. It is not any particular operation.
It is what are we going to supply to elderly people where there are
limited resources and a shrinking base of people to pay the bills. This
is more than symbolic. It is a day-to-day problem which no one seems
able to deal with in any realistic way. And no one sees this dilemma
like emergency physicians.
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Suffering is optional. Unfortunately for some of our patients, it’s at
our option and not theirs. As I look back and am confronted by some of
the most difficult patients that I ever cared for, it was the suffering
that was the problem.
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As I sit, penning the cases to be discussed for the Mills Lecture which
will be given at the ACEP Scientific Assembly in Las Vegas, I am struck
by a thought: the largest, most-needed element of health care reform was
never discussed in the recent debate. This is the dilemma of what we do
as death approaches.
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 As summer progresses, hardly a day goes by that doesn’t challenge
America’s hegemony, from the Gulf of Mexico turning into an oil slick
to the Iranians amassing nuclear weapons. In the midst of the chaos, we
have to live with a health care reform bill which has nothing to do
with health care and virtually nothing to do with reform.
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The choice is simple: process or product. Do we support the simple
checking of boxes or are we concerned with producing something real? We
have seen what happens to countries that feel that the process is more
important than their products: they lose. In America, there’s hardly a
better example of this mindless checking of boxes – without a whit of
care for outcome – as continuing medical education.
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I have no interest this month in sounding like a malignant Luddite. I
am not against all change; some change may actually be good. But, we
cannot confuse change with progress. The two have nothing to do with
each other.
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Depositions are not casual conversations or informal get-togethers
providing you with an opportunity to prove your innocence. They are
well-choreographed, deep-sea fishing expeditions designed to find the
tools the plaintiff attorney needs in court to hang you on your own
words. Be wise. Be careful. There are only two things you can never
take back in this world, a bullet and your testimony in a deposition.
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This month Oh Henry changes gears and follows Dr. Henry on the last shift of his iconic 42-year career.
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Just because medical advice is offered free of charge does not free you from liability.
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Want to shave health care costs? Start with the low hanging fruit like ACLS.
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