speech

We can all agree on the fact that our medical system is flawed. People have many ideas as to what exactly we need to change and what our federal government should do, but a new system starts regionally. There are so many opposing, or just different ideas that I can not address them all, but merely supply you with a few simple ideas I think could help to better our healthcare system.
I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has waited in an emergency room for over an hour with a serious condition. In fact, last year I had multiple experiences like this. I was just feeling "under the weather" for a few days, so I decided to stay home and recuperate. However, my symptoms just became worse and I ended up waking up in the middle of the night because it had become hard to breathe, and that's kind of a necessity.
I was rushed to an emergency room, and upon arriving I proceeded to wait for over an hour. When they finally got me into a room I was tested for all the regular stuff, strep, mono, flu, and I don't remember what else. I ended up being there half the night, and they still couldn't figure out what was wrong. All the tests had supposedly come back negative, even though most of my symptoms pointed to strep throat. They sent me home, told me I probably had some kind of virus, and said I just needed to wait it out.
I trusted them because they're doctors, and it’s their job to know these things. But I was kind of skeptical about going home, when I had woken up with trouble breathing...that was definitely unsettling. As it turned out, I did what they said, but returned two days later much worse for wear. Again, I was having trouble breathing, and my throat was so raw that I couldn't eat anymore, only drink warm tea. They ran all their tests again, and sent me home with the same news.
I found out a day later, when my parents had given up on the UK ER and brought me to a clinic, that I had strep throat all along. The doctors had misread my test TWICE. If I had waited much longer, I would have been hospitalized and soon after, in critical condition.
Strep throat it a simple diagnosis. It’s a small strip of paper with chemicals on it that turns pink if the bacteria are present. This error of poor reading should have been caught at least the second time.
The clinic doctors spoke of legal ramifications, but we never did take any action, fortunately for them.
Hospitals are constantly trying to innovate and revamp their systems in order to prevent incidents like this from happening. There are many things going on right now in our regional community that are working towards this common goal. In fact, there was a newspaper article regarding this topic in this Sunday’s paper. It was front page. The article talked about hospital competition and new buildings for each branch throughout Lexington.
This article referred to UK as a “chain.” It may sound unnerving to compare a place of health to something like a fast food restaurant, but it’s a metaphor we understand.
Basically, we need to organize our regional system into parts. We need basic care available to our entire community, like a fast food restaurant-places that have a set menu at a low price. Then we need our luxury restaurants, the place you go and stay awhile, probably costing more, but hopefully insurance companies back you up. The third part of the puzzle is our system of communication. This includes incorporating a new behavior of expecting mistakes. Often when we look for error, we find it. This doesn’t require another building, or more people, it’s just an important part of continuous improvement in our healthcare system. When people can’t communicate properly, we encounter problems, and people can get seriously hurt. The last, most crucial part of this new system I’m proposing is to give more power to the lower staff members, rather than all power resting in board members and chiefs. In this way we can get our “best solution closest to the problem.”
We can create a more malleable system that works in the best interest of the patients. Because it’s the system at fault the majority of the time, even if you put good people in a bad system, you still get bad results.
Using these ideas in our own medical system we can work to better the quality of care that our patients are getting, which is our greatest concern.
If these ideas had been implemented during my stay, my story would’ve gone much differently, for a few reasons.
1. The communication between the lab technician and my doctor would not have been skewed. They would’ve made sure to meet face to face to SEE the results in front of them, rather than my doctor relying the word negative and the technician’s signature.
2. The ER would’ve been more organized. I would’ve been merely and item on the menu that should be dealt with quickly and effectively, rather than spending most of my night in a hospital bed taking up space someone with a more serious condition may have needed.
3. If they couldn’t find out what was wrong with me and I was in a condition that serious, I would’ve been recommended to go to a “luxury restaurant” or somewhere where I could get more hands on care, where the problem would’ve been immediately corrected, if not already caught.
4. After an error like this had occurred, the staff members most closely involved would be responsible for making new additions to the system in order to prevent such slip-ups.

All and all, my story would’ve played out much smoother, concerning all points in the process. My quality of care would’ve been much higher, and the hospital would be much less vulnerable from a legal standpoint.