Uninsured Documentary Summary

The first health care system examined in detail was located in East Los Angeles. East Los Angeles is predominately composed of Hispanic and African American residences, two ethnicities that have an increased risk of developing diabetes. Many of the residents in this portion of Los Angeles are uninsured and rely on either the emergency room and other safety net providers to manage their chronic disease.
In order to mitigate the impact of the uninsured and to provide long lasting comprehensive care Dr. Peters, a diabetologist that treats patients in East Los Angeles, developed an innovative paradigm that effectively turns nurses into autonomous diabetologist. These nurses are able to focus on education and prevention; they are also more cost effective. Their impact is already being felt in this taxed Los Angeles area, emergency room visits and blood sugars have both decreased since this program began. …show more content…
Rebecca Bryson was interviewed for this documentary and she explains how she became the conduit of communication between her plethora of providers. This was terrifying for her because she constantly felt that something important might not be communicated effectively, in fact, she had multiple medication errors during her various admissions into the hospital. This is in addition to the drug interactions that she’s experienced as a result of there being no method for her physicians to communicate with each other. To combat this growing concern the doctors in this community came together to create a solution. What they ultimately came up with was a twofold approach. The first prong of their solution involved the creation of a single health record that patients could take with them between providers. This would allow updates and changes in medications to be effectively