oxymoron

I appreciated my job as I labored on earlier, thanking Big Ernie for a nice day with nice folks and not much drama which is how I like it.  We got to eat TWICE which is unheard of for a holiday or weekend usually.  The dumbass head count in the ER sector of traffic was pretty low because of a very big presence by local law enforcement which is "a good thing."  Nothing like a three day weekend to get rednecks all geeked up and fighting.  A knife or gun wound can seriously overwhelm the blood supply over not such  a short time.  Not to mention wrecks and babies getting born!  I watch the blood supply like a hawk and have tangled on more than one occasion with doctors who think that they can have what they want when they want it because......MD.

There is a new game in town called patient satisfaction which will determine Medicare dollar payout to healthcare facilities. The satisfaction score is monitored and reported for everything from rudeness to non-compliance with hand hygiene.   And the patients are the one who give input which means me and you kids.  If there is ever to be any sort of reasonable solution to the healthcare crisis globally, it has to start with us.  I guarantee  you that none of the O's at BCBS  think about how you're treated while they're on the yacht.  Just saying.  Same for big banks and oil and pham.  We have all worked and paid for the privilege of watching a pretty fair shake at good health in the 70's turn into who the hell knows what with a fat co- pay.  Leadership for this kind of change must always originate at the grass roots level so that consumers can not be boxed into "agreements" with third parties.

Some Einstein decided about 1980 that it was no longer acceptable to "bundle" charges the way hospitals did then, contracting with providers for service and charging likewise.  This was when insurance paid for an overnight stay for a physical, mind you.  Right after I started the lab got rid of blood gases and EKGs and I was tickled.  I never even had to do one of those awful stomach acid things.  After watching  couple of autopsies I was pretty much over the whole histo thing and snug in the clinical sector the rest of my time where I remain.  Still.

My eyes are slowly opening again but raw so I'm avoiding anything that might invoke tears like umm..the past.  There is nothing I can change there even if I were right about this or that or the other.  It was what it was and it happened.  My response, always acceptable, was either to whine or soldier on.  Sometimes a little of both.  I've loved a lot of people who couldn't find it to love me back or who loved and left.  I have also been blessed with some of the truest friends a girl could ever ask for just by being who I am and trusting that the spirit works when you let it.  Always leave room.

^j^