Robert wrote:Ken wrote:
I suppose you seek out hospitals with old and obsolete facilities and that that underpay their staff?
I look for medical staff that are open and honest about what they know and do not know. I look for cleanliness, order, and respect of humanity. That does not cost more in fancy hospitals or nursing centers.
Doctors and nurses are just humans. Most are doing their best, but the human body and what interacts with it are very complex and only ignorant people claim they know it well.
I respect medical personal that trust the patient as much as the patient is to trust them. Those that talk down and act like they are demigods, I move on to easily find someone better.
I was being overly snide, but my point was it isn't just the rich who seek nice hospitals with top rated doctors and staff. Pretty much EVERYONE does that. Including, I suspect, most people here, at least subconsciously. People judge hospitals by the appearance and technology and they online ratings and such to seek out the mostly highly rated doctors and facilities. My wife will tell you that it is often the indigent Medicaid patients who are most demanding and fussy. Rich has nothing to do with it.
That is the reality with our for-profit based system of private medicine. That is what you get when you combine capitalism and medicine. Hospitals and clinics are forced to compete and they do that based on facilities and technology. Maybe not in smaller towns with just one facility, but certainly in larger towns and cities. When we lived in Waco, one hospital there built a brand new hospital in a newer part of town with all the bells and whistles and lots of upscale amenities. They got a giant uptick in volume as a result and the other hospital was forced to do a complete top to bottom remodel and build a glassy brand new wing to keep pace. It is an arm's race. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent to keep up with the Joneses because that is what customers want and expect. Here in the Vancouver area there are new clinics going up all over the place, each with fancier facilities than the last.
This just went in last month a few minutes from my house:
https://www.columbian.com/news/2020/nov ... th-clinic/ Note what they are marketing, none of which really has to do with quality of care:
The Camas location has a high-tech patient experience, Mantei said. Patients use a phone-scanning system to check in, and vitals are uploaded over Bluetooth into computers, which should streamline the process and prevent errors, Mantei said.
The location also has a focus on patient privacy. Exam rooms have private hallway entrances, and patients will be weighed in exam rooms instead of a common area.
There are a lot of alternative models around the world, like the British National Health Service where everything is socialized. Some people prefer that model.