GUEST OPINION

Modern Medicine

I hear increasingly loud complaints about the cost of today’s health care. Most of the complaints come from politicians, but I even heard my neighbor complain last week. We have the best care in the world, or else folks from other countries wouldn’t come here to be treated. My experience a couple weeks ago helped me understand why it costs so much and what the medical community is trying to do about it. Last winter my leg hurt. Thinking it was my problem knee, I went to see my orthopedic surgeon. He said my knee was OK, but my hip was lousy. He has a 12-month waiting list for lousy hips, but I sweet talked the scheduler and was at the top of the list after only seven months. There is no way that the hospital can reduce the operating room staff, nor can we expect doctors to work for the same pay as United Auto Workers, so the answer is to cost control is to become more efficient. My experience would have made most military planners jealous.

D-day was on a Thursday, and I was told to report at 0730. That was a little early, so my wife and I stayed near the hospital with our family nurse (daughter). The three of us arrived right on time and were welcomed by the intake nurse who put me in the gown that eliminates all dignity and printed my intake checklist on the white board. I was to have an IV in place then meet with the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, and the nurse coordinator for a 10:00 o’clock procedure. Precisely at 9:45 after one last set of vitals, the coordinating nurse wheeled me into the operating room. I prayed for the assembled team. When they work on me, I want God on their side. One cute nurse told me I have beautiful eyes. I gave her my number, and said she could come home with me after this was all over. About that time, the anesthesiologist snuck up behind me, and I woke up in the “wake up” room around 12:30.

I didn’t have much to do except regain consciousness for the next hour and a half. I guess I did OK, because precisely at 2:00, I was l wheeled upstairs to reunite with my wife and daughter who had spent their waiting time shopping. I was greeted by another nurse whose job was to make sure that I could use the bathroom, was no longer bleeding, and was unhooked from all lines and tubes. That took exactly the tree hours allotted by my schedule on the whiteboard.

If you start counting the professionals who worked on me that day, you would come to a whole bunch. Some medical accountant determined that costs went up considerably the longer patients stay in the hospital. Short stays also reduce the chance of infection. It must have worked, because I am slowly getting better at home. My wife, however, is on the verge of exhaustion, and I still haven’t heard from that cute nurse who liked my eyes.

FRANK WATSON IS A RETIRED AIR FORCE COLONEL AND LONG-TIME RESIDENT OF EASTERN WASHINGTON. HE HAS BEEN A FREELANCE COLUMNIST FOR OVER 20 YEARS.