Follower Dantarius recently commented on a post I put up about how I was frustrated about the limits of care offered by private companies. Then those companies turn to the "Socialized" Fire Department for help.
I too often forget that I live in a microcosm where I am and likely have a different view about what is broken and what is working.
Anyone who has even glanced at this site knows I don't have all the answers, but I know what would work better where I am. Terms like Socialized, profit, care etc are used differently in different parts of the world, so my using them here could be interpreted differently by others.
So that got me wondering, what would work better where you are?
I'm asking readers to give a quick thought to what doesn't work where you are and give a solution.
Kind of like this:
We have a great deal of folks who use the Ambulance as a free taxi ride. I think a good solution would be to have a kind of little school bus that wanders the city giving them the rides they want. Not point to point, but on a set route. No commuters or kids going to school. That would reduce the strain on ambulances and ERs.
If you know of a system that solved a problem someone lists or know of a solution already working, drop that person a link.
Let's learn from each other what is broken and how to fix it. Together we, the care providers, might be able to fix this thing from the bottom up.
Comments
A dedicated ambulance in the city centre to deal with the drunks to save pulling other resources away from the more appropriate jobs to deal with the intoxicated revellers visiting Newcastle
We have previously opened a mini hospital along with one of the local hospitals down in the centre of one of the busiest drinking parts of Newcastle to try and keep the drunk/injured patients away from the main A&E Unit.
We currently have paramedics working with police officers on duty to try and fend off the frequent requests for assistance from the police for certain MINOR injuries which do not require an ambulance response.
We have Community Paramedics in our rural areas who work as part of the community health teams and work closely with local GP surgerys (primary care physicians) and take some of the patients from the doctors list and provide services for various clinics.
Just a couple to get the conversation started
Emergencies, right away, but cut elbows and drunks can wait.
The middle class are largely insured through their employers and pay small co-pays,never questioning the bill, just paying their ten or twenty bucks and forgetting about the rest.
The uninsured face bankruptcy or forgoing medical care at all. A decent plan costs $1,000.00 a month or more, a sum a lot of people cannot afford. A big percentage of insurance premiums is largely due to the overuse of health care facilities.
If people were to get the total bill from their emergency room visit, with all the unnecessary tests to ward off malpractice lawsuits, only those who truly need to be there would actually be there.
Perhaps a major illness or accident insurance policy to keep people from financial ruin is the answer, with most other health care costs being out of pocket expenses. Competition between health care providers to offer competitive prices for their services would begin. When is the last time you heard anybody choosing one hospital over another due to the cost? Quality should also improve, the poor facilities would dry up and go away.
Once people realized how expensive everything related to health care is, largely due to insurance companies and their ability to pay the abuse of the system should subside.
I'm sure my idea is full of holes, but what the heck, it's good to be the king now and then.