Tariq A. Al-Maeena
Recently, I went to visit a friend at a local hospital. When I walked into the lobby, I first thought that I was in the lobby of a five star hotel. There was a large and comfortable seating area to the side, soft music was piped in, and I easily could envision escaping to this very place for an uninterrupted moment when writing my weekly pieces.
Enough daydreaming said I to myself, as I took the elevator up to visit my friend. Well, there was more of the same in the hospital room. This looked more like the Ritz or the Plaza rather than Cedar Sinai, John Hopkins or the Mayo Clinic.
My friend was in some discomfort; he had entered the hospital with dizzy spells, spent the last three days propped and prodded and had been subjected to all sorts of tests, but had not yet been provided with a satisfactory diagnosis. After some time in sharing my sympathies with him, I left.
On my way home, I wondered about my friend’s complaint which is one common to many of us who seek medical attention. I also wondered about all the expensive medical tests that he had to undergo. Well, let me begin by saying that hospitals have become big business. The bottom line is profit rather than a speedy recovery.
After all, how is the hospital planning to recoup its expenditure on "glitz"? Clearly it is planning to let the patient pay for it! Some hospitals spend big bucks on facilities and equipment, yet offer their doctors and supporting medical staff very low pay packages. The old adage that "when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys", unfortunately, applies in some cases.
Patients are often subjected to an array of medical tests for the simplest symptoms. Medicines are prescribed without a proper understanding of their effects. In fact, some doctors have become the passionate salesmen of pharmaceutical companies. We are slowly being transformed into pill poppers and medicine worshipers who will not be properly satisfied unless we walk out of a doctor’s office with a prescription slip for no less than five or six different types of medication. Anything less and we look upon the doctor with suspicion.
My personal horror stories at being subjected to the incorrect diagnosis of doctors affirm the feeling that we can be victimized by insensitive and improper diagnosis. I was once prescribed Prozac when all I needed was a muscle relaxant. When I broke a couple of bones in my foot some years ago, a veterinarian posing as an orthopedist (I found this out later, when he was fired) set it back in plaster! And the list goes on and on.
In the area of mental health, there has been considerable harm to many of us. Brain altering medication is frequently prescribed, practically frying some of the brain cells in our skulls permanently and resulting in total dependency. There is a serious shortage of qualified psychiatric care at many medical institutions.
Then there is the attempt by some doctors and hospitals to blame medical mistakes on "an act other than their own". In recent times, patients who have been victimized have begun to fight back with lawsuits and some house cleaning at these institutions has begun.
There are many good and honorable doctors out there. But faced with the pressure of recouping investments in "glitz" or capital expenses at these medical institutions, they have to process more patients per hour than is sensible, and these doctors lose out in the battle of substance over quota.
Those entrusted with health legislation must periodically review the doctor-patient practices in hospitals and clinics and make it a point to minimize the cruel effect of improper medical diagnosis on our community.
— The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena
