Archive for July, 2010

Evolution or Devolution?

July 16th, 2010

There’s a part of me that celebrates each and every day because I’m evolving. For example . . . being a mature person usually feels pretty good.  I’m more settled, less angry, less needy, less . . . well, you get the idea.  On the other hand, I would never want to own a, vintage car.  Why?  They usually don’t have air conditioning, air bags, seat belts, or CD changers. . .with auxiliary jacks for MP3 digital audio players.  Driving one would be taking several steps backwards in safety, comfort, and style.

How else have I evolved?  Let’s see.  I have air bags.  Okay, maybe they’re not air bags,  but I have a protective coating of extra stuff around my organs. (I’ve gained at least one additional pound a year for the past 30 years.)  Oh, and I am a lot smarter, too.  In fact, my IQ test gained at least 10 points over the last few decades.  (It would probably have been 20 points higher if I hadn’t been on cholesterol medication, but I’d probably be dead and that higher IQ wouldn’t help much.)  On the other hand, the fish oil is supposed to make your brain work better.  Mom used to say, “Nicky, eat your fish.  It’s brain food.”  (Forget the fact that it was deep fried and heavily battered.)

Nick Jacobs, FACHE at the beach with his grandchildrenThis evolution thing could all be summed up by saying that I’m finally starting to mature.  Even though I’ve missed it by decades; it’s happening now.  I’m wiser.  Honestly, there couldn’t be that many things left to learn about running stuff; four decades is a lot of  experience.  I’ve learned about politics, human relations, sociopaths and wonderful souls; and I’ve learned about construction, child birth, heart attacks and ground moles.  I’ve lived through the birth of my kids, my grandkids, and my friend’s kids.  I’ve lived through the deaths of every aunt, uncle, and a few cousins; friends, neighbors, mentors and a half dozen family pets, and I’ve held both of my parents in my arms as they passed, too.

Having observed all of this, what is the devolution?

On NPR the other day, there was a short story that the American public’s view of capitalism has deteriorated.  The exact percentage of those still embracing capitalism was about 44% and those who think it’s outlived its appropriateness was around 47%.  (I guess the other 9% might have thought that capitalism had something to do with that white building in Washington D.C.)  Interestingly, before I heard this story, my impression of capitalism had devolved as well.  In fact, the litany of sins observable to me because of the extreme capitalist approach that we have embraced is long and includes:  BP, Enron, Tyco, Bernie Madoff, and the fat food industry . . . I mean, the fast food industry.

But then I read a rant by Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online:

“Every good thing capitalism helps produce — from singing careers to cures for diseases to staggering charity —  is credited to some other sphere of our lives. Every problem with capitalism, meanwhile, is laid at her feet. Except the problems with capitalism — greed, theft, etc. — aren’t capitalism’s fault, they’re humanity’s. Socialist countries have greedy thieves, too.”

So, what’s the answer?  It seems simple enough.  Once again, from Mom, “It’s moderation.”  The far right and far left seem to be providing a daily whipsaw of entertaining cable news shows from Beck to Olbermann and from Hannity to Maddow, but these extreme views are not helping us solve the problems.  In fact their rhetoric contributes to this devolution.  Does Rush really believe everything that he says or does he say it because it’s so outrageous that he can continue to earn nearly $38 million per year?  And Keith? And Glenn?

I like my air conditioning, my air bags, and my computer assisted brakes, but I’m really getting tired of “bags of air,” greedy anybodys and anythings.

Let’s be less angry, less needy, and more settled . . . come on, guys, grow up.

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Posted in Boomers, Current Affairs, Public Policy

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Overexposure to Radiation

July 12th, 2010

When I saw this…

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Ever since a surge in cases of patient exposure to excess amounts of radiation during diagnostic procedures, pressure has been mounting for healthcare providers and equipment manufacturers. The FDA has already taken action, including a call for stepped-up training for practitioners and a more stringent approval process for radiation-emitting equipment.

Antique X-Ray machine used to determine shoe size

Antique x-ray machine used to determine children's shoe sizes. Photo credit: desertsurvivor.blogspot.com

…I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  Overexposure to radiation is something I’ve thought about for many years.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that, short of cancer victims, I’d be the poster child for this for Boomers.  Let me count the ways.  Every time I went to my family doc as a kid for anything except a strain or a splinter, he’d zap me with the fluoroscope,  just for good measure.  Then, when we went shopping at Buster Brown’s, in order to determine my foot length and width,  I’d get my feet x-rayed.  After that, I played too much trumpet and had to have my lip radiated because of a blemish that wouldn’t go away.  There were at least seven radiation sessions with Dr. Jacob, a dermatologist who reminded me of Dr. Jekyll.  He zapped me because that’s what they did in “those days” for blemishes.  He would lay me on the table, cover me in lead, and zap my lip with radiation.  Thank goodness for the lead.

As a young adult, my Internal Medicine doctor had his own x-ray equipment and used to say, “Okay, time for your chest x-ray.”  Problem was, he did it every single time I went to him.   Once, however, when I went there, there was no x-ray.  I asked the nurse why and she laughed and said, “Oh, that old piece of junk…it was zapping all of us with radiation.”   Later that week I heard on the radio that he had donated his unit to a small hospital.

As a teacher, chest x-rays were a requirement.  We would be invited to go onto an old x-ray bus every two years and they would light us up on a piece of x-ray equipment that probably put out more radiation than the bombs dropped at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. All in the name of TB checks.

Bronchitis visited me regularly over the past several decades, and chest x-rays were always part of those visits. So were dental x-rays, over and over and over again. The MRIs do things a little differently, but I’m sure there’s still some type of telltale exposure there, and I’ve had three or four of those. Annual physicals now include chest x-rays, thallium stress tests, et al, and visits to the bone docs required x-rays, too.  Oh yeah, and the heart caths?  They fill you with dye and then they light you up with the ol’ fluoroscope… did that three times.

And don’t forget the “new fangled invention that’s perfectly safe,” the heart screening on the 2, 16, 64 and then 128 slice PET/CTs. Did that three times, too.

BUT let’s get to the real exposure — playing in the sunshine, sans any type of sun tan lotion or sun screen.  Okay, I guess that’s an exaggeration.  We used to mix Merthiolate with baby oil, or sometimes just use baby oil to ensure a nice brown cooked look.  Every year I looked like a half Italian coffee bean.  It was more than a tan.  It was a deep fried, make your teeth look whiter than snow, fun in the sun, ain’t wearin’ no shirt, nature is good for you, sun tan with burns that preceded the tans every year.

HealingHospitals.com - Overexposure to Radiation - Nick Jacobs, FACHE

So, when people tell me to eat organic, I smile and think, “Yep, that will erase all of those rads that filled me up like a Rocky Mountain boulder,” but I do what they say and just wait and pray that the radiation devil will not come my way.  If the sickness won’t kill you, the cure will, and that’s the truth.  At least you won’t ever need a night light.

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Posted in Future, Healthcare, Hospitals

Settling into what?

July 3rd, 2010

Healthcare reform will be phased in over the next several years, and when you ask the experts what their opinions are regarding this new legislation, the universal answer that I’ve received is, “I don’t know.”  There is one very fundamental reason that leads to this answer, bureaucracy.   Much like HIPAA, the law was actually written by young health policy scholars, 50% of whom will not be in their current positions two or three years from now.  In fact, many of them will no longer be in the Metropolitan Washington D.C. area.  Consequently, the policy wonks will take over and the fundamental premises upon which the program was built will be left for in-depth interpretation by the “bureaucrat du jour.” 

Having spent a decade working in a government related, subcontract situation, this fact alone sends cold chills down my spine at the rate of thousands per second.  Recently, it was my distinct displeasure to sit across from two of these individuals, detail splitters, at a meeting on Capitol Hill.  Prior to the “opening bell,” they had formulated their opinions regarding their preferred outcome of the meeting, and they had dug in to ensure that none of the facts presented by the opposing side would be considered relevant.  They had made up their minds that the greater good would be served by their pre-meeting decision making.  Interestingly enough, their decisions in fact would result in hundreds of families being destroyed as their loved ones were forced to languish so that studies of the studies could be performed over the next several years. 

In HIPAA,  the Health Care  Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the “wonks” took its well-intended core values and distorted them into a nightmare of implementation that forever changed health care in the United States, and, after literally billions of dollars of required implementation changes for thousands of hospitals, doctors, and health professionals, all one has to do to experience the absurdity of most of these privacy attempts is stand on the other side of a curtain in a surgi-center, a semi-private room, an emergency room, or even a registration area and listen.  What you will hear is hundreds of facts about the person beside you; condition upon admission, detailed diagnosis, phone numbers, et al, at which point you can lean back, smile and say, “HIPAA my A**. “

So, conceptually, is healthcare reform what needed to be done?  The answer is an unequivocal, “Yes.”  Was it the right thing to do to reach out to the uninsured?  Absolutely.  Should we as a country move toward electronic medical records?  Yes.  Does it make more sense to bundle payments so as to encourage physicians and hospitals to work together more closely?  No question.  Finally, was the system broken?  Beyond a doubt. It was completely broken. 

As a country we have slipped out of first place now in so many categories that it is embarrassing to delineate those statistical changes, but healthcare should improve now that this legislation has passed.  You may have detected that the operative word is SHOULD.  Will it?  On PBS’s Nova last evening I watched the day by day analysis of why we were not ready for the attacks on 911.  It was because of the bureaucracy.  It was because the NSA (which now has about 35,000 employees and has a budget well over $20B annually.) was NOT willing to share the information that they were obtaining with the FBI, and the FBI was not working with the CIA, and the CIA was not working with the FAA, and the FAA was . . .  Well, you get the picture. 

Healthcare reform?  We’ll see.

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Posted in Healthcare, Public Policy