Can We Humanize Our Medical System?
Jack D. Gordon, President
Hospice Foundation of America
[Note: Mr. Gordon served as Chairman and CEO of HFA until his death in
2005.]
Almost every day we hear or read of new horrors visited upon Americans by their medical system:
- Forty million are uninsured.
- Nursing home residents lie unattended and in intractable pain.
- Physicians don't honor the wishes of their patients.
- Dying people can't get pain medication.
What these daily events describe is a medical system which has become a slave to rules, policies and, most of all, technology. In the process the system has lost much of its emphasis on humanity, and perhaps its sanity. We have created the most expensive system in the world which does not, by any measurement one wants to use, deliver the best health care to everyone.
On the optimistic side, if we regain the commitment to humanity, we can regain sanity within the medical delivery system.
A more humane and efficient medical model already exists. That model is called hospice, and every day we see it deliver better care at lower cost.
Humanity can be restored to the healthcare system by returning decisions to the patient; by recognizing how and when to care for the patient's spiritual and psychosocial needs, as well as medical needs; by getting physicians to feel successful if they enable a person to die at home, without pain, rather than feel unsuccessful because the patient couldn't be cured; by accepting the fact that there are limits to technology.
It is critical that our healthcare system serve the patient and that everyone understands that the patient is in charge. It is each patient's decision to use medical technology as they feel appropriate, and what is appropriate for a patient can only be decided by a well-informed individual.
By beginning to restore humanity to the system, medical and fiscal sanity will naturally follow. These elements will bring to individuals a greater sense of wellness, and to the nation a better healthcare system.
Let us know what you think.
