Lawmakers must meet higher standard of care
Are surgeons held to a different standard than our elected officials? Should we anticipate that our elected officials will hurt the specialty as health care reform moves toward becoming policy?
As good doctors, plastic surgeons ensure that our patients are treated properly and promptly, and we let them know why and what we're doing each step of the way. We quickly reestablish contact with patients when they try to reach us with questions, and we inform them as best as we can. We follow through after initiating care. We provide the highest quality care possible - and as a specialty, we continually innovate in order to improve the standard of care.
Let's compare that with the way Congress works, since it looks like its members will take over the reins of the health care system.
The debt ceiling crisis started when Republicans refused to rubber-stamp a plan to elevate the debt ceiling, a measure formerly taken for granted as "business as usual." Partisan politics took over, as polarized (and polarizing) parties "gamed" the situation while amping up their agendas and preying on the fears of the American people.
Meanwhile, there emerged a serious threat to the U.S. credit rating (which, in fact, was downgraded by Standard & Poor's shortly after the Congressional "compromise" was reached), while the posturing in the halls of Congress abetted the slow slide of the world economy. Americans (including military personnel) who depend on a government paycheck faced the increasingly likely prospect of not getting paid. Even constituents who argue for less government intrusion showed growing concern that they might not get their federal unemployment and Social Security checks.
Fanatical political party theatrics overrode the needs of a collapsing country's citizens - still reeling from a recession and unremitting unemployment. Ultimately, the debt ceiling crisis was "resolved" at the 11th hour after a great deal of hand-wringing and hoopla, allowing the country to pay off its debts - now at higher interest rates due to the delay in meeting a compromise. Debt compromise leaders have agreed to create a panel that will definitively locate spending cuts within a protracted, concrete timeframe. Essentially, they "turfed" the problem and made it someone else's.
The debt ceiling crisis was (and will be) demoralizing to American citizens and shake their confidence in this country's leadership - whose interests don't seem to lie with their constituents' best interests.
Who's going to run medicine?
After seeing how our political leaders deal with finance, how do you think they'll handle medicine? Better yet, how would patients feel if they were similarly handled by their medical care providers?
It's unfortunate, but not unexpected, that the administration preys upon the fear of its constituents; that debt-crisis negotiation became reliant on long, anxiety-provoking waits for irrelevant feedback; that egos overshadowed basic needs; and that the lack of a definitive resolution extended for a painful and lengthy period.
Does this potentially describe health care reform of the future? While I'm on call, I encounter patients whom I've neither met before nor operated upon, asking me to expedite the time they might have to spend in an E.R. to get a laceration repaired.
So let's fast forward to health care reform when government usurps control and panels like the IPAB determine provision of care. What will the American public do when it has to wait for a heart bypass or kidney transplant, not just a laceration repair?
Constituents expect loyalty and service from officials they elect to office, just as they expect from their medical care providers. They expect laser focus and an interest in the greater good. They expect resolution. This recent Congressional escapade contributes to real concern on so many levels.
Against this political background, we can only hope that old-school white knights will pop up - and one already has. Unfortunately, we can't rely upon her to solve our health care conundrum.
A higher standard of ‘caring'
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) survived a gunshot wound to the head in January. She has rehabilitated with tenacity, and she quietly appeared in the House chambers Aug. 1 - just months after her injury - to vote in favor of resolving the debt crisis, and in doing so to advocate for her constituents.
Rep. Giffords was determined to participate because she understood the value of her vote. She is an inspiration: a model of humility, strength, hard work, dedication and
loyalty to the constituents who voted for her and who depend upon her for representation. She went into public service to serve the public, not to serve her ego or stoke her power. Sadly, not all of our elected officials can meet her "standard of caring."
We can only hope elected officials with a strength of spirit similar to Gabrielle Giffords' will rise to take leadership roles on health care reform. To make reform successful, those governing the provision of health care need to grasp and enforce the fundamental values of doctors - and balance those values with fiscal responsibility.
When the federal government governs health care, the Hippocratic oath should be mandatory reading for every government employee. That shouldn't be a problem - it's much shorter and easier to understand than the usual government document.
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