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BigBen · 08-29-2005, 09:54 AM

One of the main threats to our wonderful and proud public healthcare system up here in "Canuckistan" (love that one, btw) is what Bill was describing when talking about unnecessary medical treatment.

The only solution is to have a gatekeeper at the door that assesses need. Physicians are very hesitant to do this, because they may misdiagnose something very serious, and administrators are unwilling to do this because they do not have the clinical authority to turn someone away... All we can do is educate the public to not go to an emergency room unless it is an emergency.

We have a toll free line that connects you to a registered nurse, and you call and talk to her about your symptoms. She then recommends (without liability) what over the counter medications you could take and what the next clinical step is. The stats say that the majority of calls DO require emergency treatment. Haha, the majority of people only call the number when they should be calling an ambulance!

I personally do not want the job of telling someone "Your injury/illness is not serious enough to be treated here, please go to a clinic or make an appointment with a doctor's office". Plus, we have set up the system to reward physicians financially for seeing these patients.

The system would change if we gave doctors 1 dollar for assessing a sore throat. They would then tell the nurses to tell those sore throat patients to fuck off, and then the sore throats would have to find an alternative (hopefully a clinic) to have their condition treated.

Cost of sore throat treatment at an emergency room: 350$
Cost of sore throat treatment at a clinic: Priceless

/end medicare rant
/begin welfare rant

I sleep better at night knowing that people less fortunate than me are having their needs (and, unfortunately sometimes, their wants) met by the government. I do not want to live in a society that turns its collective back at the poor and lower class (sorry to revert to 'class' descriptors here, but it best describes my thoughts).

I accept all the abuse in the world rather than scrap the present system.

I will collect my thoughts and post more. Maybe along the lines of Mal's... define my perfect welfare system!

08-29-2005, 09:54 AM	#49 (permalink)
BigBen Comedian Location: Use the search button	One of the main threats to our wonderful and proud public healthcare system up here in "Canuckistan" (love that one, btw) is what Bill was describing when talking about unnecessary medical treatment. The only solution is to have a gatekeeper at the door that assesses need. Physicians are very hesitant to do this, because they may misdiagnose something very serious, and administrators are unwilling to do this because they do not have the clinical authority to turn someone away... All we can do is educate the public to not go to an emergency room unless it is an emergency. We have a toll free line that connects you to a registered nurse, and you call and talk to her about your symptoms. She then recommends (without liability) what over the counter medications you could take and what the next clinical step is. The stats say that the majority of calls DO require emergency treatment. Haha, the majority of people only call the number when they should be calling an ambulance! I personally do not want the job of telling someone "Your injury/illness is not serious enough to be treated here, please go to a clinic or make an appointment with a doctor's office". Plus, we have set up the system to reward physicians financially for seeing these patients. The system would change if we gave doctors 1 dollar for assessing a sore throat. They would then tell the nurses to tell those sore throat patients to fuck off, and then the sore throats would have to find an alternative (hopefully a clinic) to have their condition treated. Cost of sore throat treatment at an emergency room: 350$ Cost of sore throat treatment at a clinic: Priceless /end medicare rant /begin welfare rant I sleep better at night knowing that people less fortunate than me are having their needs (and, unfortunately sometimes, their wants) met by the government. I do not want to live in a society that turns its collective back at the poor and lower class (sorry to revert to 'class' descriptors here, but it best describes my thoughts). I accept all the abuse in the world rather than scrap the present system. I will collect my thoughts and post more. Maybe along the lines of Mal's... define my perfect welfare system! __________________ 3.141592654 Hey, if you are impressed with my memorizing pi to 10 digits, you should see the size of my penis.