Blinders

He sat in the chair reading the contraindication pages given to him with four different prescriptions. He laughed and read aloud:

Tell your doctor immediately if you become thirsty or confused. Hell, he said, that's my whole problem.

The doctor always prescribes a few things that aren't covered by his limited insurance. It's a nice gesture, wasted; a cookbook version of treatment. I don't know why it doesn't occur to them that the only money he's got is the bus fare they're going to give him when he leaves. Even then, sometimes people act like they're doing him a favor. Like, hey here's a dollar forty-five so you can get back over to that bridge you've been living on for the last few years. Don't forget to weigh yourself regularly and have your blood pressure checked and oh, by the way, stop drinking.

On the other side, and there is another side. There are some health care professionals who actually get it. They're hard-working, bright compassionate people who'd do just about anything for anybody they could. Their only limitation is the broken system. The one that discharges you on a Sunday knowing you can't get any medicine until Tuesday. The one that says we heard you say you'd like to try rehab so why don't you make an appointment for a month from now.

Three days ago, the Tennessean printed an article with a headline, General Hospital needs image transplant. Straight from the mouth of the Metro Hospital Authority's chief executive:

"We want to get the public to perceive us differently," Coopwood said.

How? The hospital has made some low-budget strides with a television commercial. They have a new slogan: "Experience the new General. Get to know us."

Does anyone actually believe that a new slogan is going to fix General's problems? That's the mentality that probably drove it into the ground in the first place. General Hospital needs a staff transplant. Again, let me make it perfectly clear, I believe there are competent, well-trained people working there. Unfortunately, they're surrounded by a cloud of complacent, irritable, employees drowning in bureaucracy and underfunding. By all means, spend tens of thousands of dollars on a commercial. When the ambulance driver asks Dr. Coopwood what hospital he'd like to be taken to, what do we think he's going to say?