Posted by
Nita Derouen on Thursday, June 18, 2009 12:00:00 AM
Everyday there are new reports on the need for national health care. Having been a nurse for 10 years and an advanced practice nurse for four, I feel that most of the talking heads calling for universal care have never looked at our current system. Yes, our system today is seriously flawed but one has to consider the entire picture and not be blinded by a myopic view of healthcare. Sixty to 70% of all health care cost goes to the paper work and staffing of those involved in receiving payment for services rendered. Do we really need to add a governmental body to an already top heavy system? Defensive medicine is ruining health care. I cannot begin to tell you how many patients that I see for anesthesia pre operative preparation that have had pregnancy tests ordered by their primary or emergency physician when the patient has had a hysterectomy. Ridiculous tests ordered in algorhythm style just to stave off ridiculous law suits that plague the health care system. The over use of laboratory data and imaging studies is crippling our health care dollars. We need a less litigious environment for health care while at the same time, we need to better educate nurses entering the nursing field. We spend so much time teaching defensive nursing in nursing school and how to "chart" that the common sense aspect of nursing care gets pushed to the side. We do need an overhaul of our health care system. Let's start with ending non income awards. Lets free up time in the educational process of healthcare workers from litigious prevention to actual patient care. Lets let physicians order the tests needed to diagnose and treat patients, and not order tests just because they are worried about liability.