I just finished watching a television program on insurance for healthcare in America and it is shameful! This is the main reason I write this blog…to inform and to ask you to think, dare I say it…outside of the “normal” or traditional thinking.
Today I want to talk with you about hospital stays in July. (Yes, I know…I very nearly missed it as the month is nearly over.) Here are about 8 things your doctor doesn’t want you know about a stay in the hospital – before you check in…These come from Mainstreet.com:
July is the most dangerous month to visit a hospital. Why? Because that is the month when students graduate from medical school and start doing their residencies at teaching hospitals. There is a 10 percent spike in death due to hospital medication errors in July as well.
It is no secret that hospitals have terrible wait times, which I’ve always thought were cruel and unusual in addition to endangering everyone in the waiting room. Far from being unusual it is more the norm for patients who need to be seen within 14 of minutes of arriving have ended up having to wait for more than twice as long.
I wonder if this includes doctor office visits. What is up with that anyway? I mean come on! You are asked to be 15 minutes early for your first appointment (for paper work) then on subsequent visits they demand that you be punctual. Well, excuse me, but shouldn’t the doctor be punctual as well? I mean if they only actually ‘see’ their patient for maybe 10-15 minutes, (if you are lucky) then why are they chronically late for their next patient? (Let’s see a show of hands…how many of you have sat in a freezing cold examination room with nothing on but a paper gown for an interminable amount of time? – When the doctor comes in and asks how you are, I’ve always been tempted to say, “…and the start of pneumonia, thank you very much.”)
The number of patients suffering from bedsores has increased significantly in recent years. To prevent them, ask your doctor or whoever is accompanying you to make sure you change positions very couple of hours; keep your skin clean and prop yourself up with pillows to relieve pressure points.
Most people think they are safe from infection in a hospital. Well, not to scare you, because you would think with all that sanitation going on it would be safe, but there are 1.7 million cases of hospital infections every year and 99,000 deaths related to these infections. Staph and MRSA, (a very nasty superbug type of staph infection) are the two that are surprisingly common in hospitals. (For a free ebook with information on what MRSA is and is not, http://www.staph-infection-resources.com/3/p/mrsa/mrsa-infections.html?gclid=CK-I7Z6zhaMCFQtI5wodNxfYcQ)
I personally find it outrageous that infections should be so high! Implementing simple procedures like washing your hands, with soap after touching each patient, and making sure the bedding is clean would go far in getting those numbers down!
Your identity is also at risk. To date, 1.5 million Americans have had their personal information stolen to be used for someone else to use for their health care costs.
Most Americans’ at one point or another will suffer from hospital bill shock, but remember sometimes these bills are negotiable. (Some hospitals have been known to drop their price by a third or more.) It never hurts to ask…
If you find that you will need an anesthesiologist, you would do well to interview them before your procedure. An inept anesthesiologist can not only cause serious harm to a patient, they can also kill them. It is important that you feel confident that you are getting the best care.
Some hospitals have taken up the controversial practice of looking up patient credit scores, credit limits and even (!) 401(k) information. (I come unglued over this! Consumer advocacy groups are questioning the privacy concerns of this practice. And well they should!)
You can check Consumer Reports http://www.consumerreports.org/health/doctors-hospitals/hospital-infection/deadly-infections-hospitals-can-lower-the-danger/hospital-infection-rates/index.htm for hospitals in your area for infection rates before you go.
The American people are being over-medicated and treated for a terminal illness or old age. As a whole the medical profession wants the populace to be under-educated on what they can do for themselves for prevention. The American medical system treats only symptoms and never the cause of disease which often times leads to over-testing and over-treating. (Why do you think we are having such a difficult time with the ‘super bugs’? – They have developed a tolerance to the medications!)
There are things we can do to keep ourselves out of the hospital:
Eat a healthy diet and keep your insulin levels down
Drink plenty of clean water
Manage your stress
Exercise
Enjoy some daily sunshine
Limit toxin exposure
Eat plenty of raw food
Consume healthy fat
Get plenty of sleep
And my personal belief, try not to take everything so seriously – smile and laugh! You will feel better!
