Cough, cough hack, hack I need a health reform stat! Sooner or later the inevitable happens; we have succumbed to a virus, bacteria, or injury and we need a visit to the doctor to help us regain our health. Whether you have the common cold or suffer from a life threatening illness, whether you are in the city or in the middle of nowhere people seek out the help of doctors expecting to be faced with comfort, hospitality, and aid. Thankfully in the U.S these expectations are always met and surpassed with flying colors. No U.S citizen would ever have to worry about an unsatisfactory experience such as being turned down for health care or witnessing the clinical, insensitive portion of these institutions designed to care for patient’s needs, right?
…show more content…
According to Miller this system is no longer based on its foundation of caring for patients but is now a multi-billion dollar industry with a mechanical feel and unquenchable rapacity. Hospitals now turn down thousands of people annually who cannot afford health care or are uninsured, new research done by Harvard’s medical school reveals that this leads to 45,000 deaths annually (Abelson). Information like this is outrageous and should lead people to seriously question our current systems. Many of these people are dying from easily treatable illnesses which they can’t afford to seek help for due to a fear of drowning in debt. An equally infuriating point found in “Patient Dumping: How Hospitals Treat Mentally Ill”. According to award winning writer and bipolar disorder specialist Natasha Tracy so often are those with mental illness subdued to “second class citizen”(Tracey) treatment; being tossed out of hospitals, minimally looked at, and even told to leave. Treatment like this seems absurd and disgusting. In “Caregivers Understanding of Dementia Predicts Patients Comfort at Death,” writer Jenny Van Der Steen discusses the importance for specified palliative care in order to help patients with mental illness. In Steen’s opinion, treating these patients as if they were average in hospice would take away the whole point of palliative care and its personalized care for each …show more content…
You are uncertain how much time you have left. This vision for most is terrifying not only are you in fear for your own life and health, you are also faced with your heavy hearted and gloomy family members. You want nothing more than to relax and spend time at home. This bed you are in and this room is all a dreadful nightmare to you and your loved ones. This hospital is nowhere to face death. With death already being a depressing hardship people and their families endure why don’t we change the way we die (Miller)? Now counter that feeling of depression and the mechanical sense of a hospital with the warmth of your bed and the comfort of your home. Everything around you is familiar. Vibrant colors, rugged or wooden floors, furniture placed around in a decorative manner. All the cozy comfort one could possibly ask for. Out of those two choices the latter is the much more appealing choice for most anyone. This comparison illustrates the differences between the comfort of a hospital and the comfort one faces when receiving palliative care. Which would you rather undergo when facing the inevitable? To Miller, the speaker of my TED talk, the difference and choice is obvious. Having been near death and bed ridden in a hospital, Miller sees the stark distinctions between that experience and those he witnesses daily while working for palliative care where he sees the positive effects family members have of seeing their
According to Miller this system is no longer based on its foundation of caring for patients but is now a multi-billion dollar industry with a mechanical feel and unquenchable rapacity. Hospitals now turn down thousands of people annually who cannot afford health care or are uninsured, new research done by Harvard’s medical school reveals that this leads to 45,000 deaths annually (Abelson). Information like this is outrageous and should lead people to seriously question our current systems. Many of these people are dying from easily treatable illnesses which they can’t afford to seek help for due to a fear of drowning in debt. An equally infuriating point found in “Patient Dumping: How Hospitals Treat Mentally Ill”. According to award winning writer and bipolar disorder specialist Natasha Tracy so often are those with mental illness subdued to “second class citizen”(Tracey) treatment; being tossed out of hospitals, minimally looked at, and even told to leave. Treatment like this seems absurd and disgusting. In “Caregivers Understanding of Dementia Predicts Patients Comfort at Death,” writer Jenny Van Der Steen discusses the importance for specified palliative care in order to help patients with mental illness. In Steen’s opinion, treating these patients as if they were average in hospice would take away the whole point of palliative care and its personalized care for each …show more content…
You are uncertain how much time you have left. This vision for most is terrifying not only are you in fear for your own life and health, you are also faced with your heavy hearted and gloomy family members. You want nothing more than to relax and spend time at home. This bed you are in and this room is all a dreadful nightmare to you and your loved ones. This hospital is nowhere to face death. With death already being a depressing hardship people and their families endure why don’t we change the way we die (Miller)? Now counter that feeling of depression and the mechanical sense of a hospital with the warmth of your bed and the comfort of your home. Everything around you is familiar. Vibrant colors, rugged or wooden floors, furniture placed around in a decorative manner. All the cozy comfort one could possibly ask for. Out of those two choices the latter is the much more appealing choice for most anyone. This comparison illustrates the differences between the comfort of a hospital and the comfort one faces when receiving palliative care. Which would you rather undergo when facing the inevitable? To Miller, the speaker of my TED talk, the difference and choice is obvious. Having been near death and bed ridden in a hospital, Miller sees the stark distinctions between that experience and those he witnesses daily while working for palliative care where he sees the positive effects family members have of seeing their