I deeply appreciate the care I have had as a patient. But I can't help wonder why I have had such a heartening experience. Perhaps my experience has not been the result of happenstance or special relationships but of a health-care environment that still places the patient ahead of the bottom line. Medicaid and Medicare cuts, both present and future, will have devastating effects on hospital care. And now, for-profit insurers and large national hospital chains are trying to penetrate Massachusetts for the first time.
Time is a prerequisite for real engagement between caregiver and patient.
Even the most compassionate caregivers cannot use their healing gifts if they don't have the time to do so. A friend who worked at the National Cancer Institute, in Maryland, quoted his mentor as saying that when physicians give bad news to a patient, they must give that person more of their time - to explain, to answer questions, and to provide comfort. Time alone is not enough, however. Caregivers need to be trained and encouraged to engage with their patients. I came to know a lot about the health-care policy and management, government relations and contracts.