the medical industrial complex

[smileswhf]

It's a weird and scary thing to be tossed into the medical industrial complex. It's one of those areas in life in which decisions are made about you very often without you. In the summer when I had emergency surgery, I went to a hospital and got whatever gumball came out of the machine that night for a doctor. I have to say, he was kind and competent and I am up walking around in good health because of his care. However, going back to his office for scheduled maintenance isn't sitting well with me. He is part of a large practice so the waiting room is noisy. There are 2 tv's that are alternately turned to fox news or the view or whatever is appealing to southern housewives these days. The staff was rude and unhelpful. Scheduling appointments takes vigilance on the part of the user to make sure it is done correctly. You have little to no control over what decisions are made for you and about you. Instead of information, I was handed a one inch packet of marketing material about all of the things I could buy. And on. And on. On the other hand, the doctor I first went to for girl issues when I landed here is someone I like very much. My spouse didn't approve of me going there because the large HMO type clinic with which she is affiliated was ranked poorly in a national survey of best practices. It turns out that she has hospital privileges with the large general community, not-for-profit hospital. Her waiting room is smaller, quieter and calmer. The interior might be described as 1980's marriott. There is a tv, but it's off in one corner where you can easily avoid it and the volume is kept to an inoffensive level. We had to wait for a long time -- most of an hour, but the doctor was kind, informative, answered all of our questions and didn't rush us to finish. We'll see what my spouse has to say about it over dinner tonight.

In the meantime I am spending my afternoon upgrading firmware on a 668 node cluster. Whenever we do this, it is always more disorganized and chaotic than I would do if I were running the show. OTOH, it gets done and we all still mostly like each other afterwards, so a little inefficiency isn't going to sink us. The guys laugh at me because I've been knitting myself a computer room outfit -- my fingerless gloves are finished but I still need to do my hat with ear flaps and scarf. Today, I've got a hoody to pull up over a beanie. That 50 degree air blowing down your neck is a killer.