Aren't They Supposed to Heal the Sick?

[Westerly_2]

Here’s the situation: you have a friend who has been told by a visiting nurse that there “may be evidence” of head lice, but she wasn’t sure, so your friend should consult her PC to be sure. Your friend calls and makes an appointment; this PC is tracking the progress of her shingles anyway, and she mentions the possibility of the lice as well. They make a quick appointment to squeeze her in. On the morning of the appointment, the lady is literally being helped into her wheelchair by the van staff she had to request ahead of time, when the PC’s office calls and says they have changed their minds about seeing her, since, if she does have lice, she “shouldn’t be coming to the office.” Instead, they tell her about a special shampoo she may not even need, and advise her not to come back to the office until she is cured.

 

I was pretty stunned at this treatment by health care professionals. The lady uses her own chair, and not the public furniture, and any doctor’s office will have boxes of those latex gloves on hand. What the hell?

[Snagg]

This what happens when the cost of malpractice insurance is the highest of all of your overhead bills. You're terrified to make a move, you can't see any patients except the "low-risk" kind, you go out of business, and your former competitor takes over your area, inherits your cast-off clientele - And then his malpractice rates go up, because now HE'S the "highest risk" to the insurance company.

My dad, who I rarely viewed as any kind of source of knowledge or wisdom, sold insurance door to door, driving all over the state for a long time. He once told me that insurance companies are the biggest bastards on the planet, and this was a man who did gruesome, hand-to-hand combat through the Pacific theater of WW II. For a guy who saw the whole world in simple black & white terms, with no room for complexity or mitigating factors, that really says something.

[Westerly_2]

Seriously? It's ALL about the insurance? Someone might sue if they believe they contacted lice (or whatever else) in their doctor's office?

[Maricel Evasco]

Westerly__2 , thank you for joining us here. I apologize for delayed response....my week has been crazy and I just started a master's program which takes up a lot of my time.

 

I do think it was unethical for the PC's office to back pedal after confirming an appointment, but I too would be reluctant to have someone afflicted with lice come into a crowded office. One doesn't need body contact to catch lice. The buggers can jump off a person's hair onto another person's clothes. We send students with evidence of lice home ASAP. I can't understand why the visiting nurse couldn't wash that woman's hair with medicated shampoo.

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

the health care system in the US s essentially non-exsistant.