How to Fix the Costs of Health Care

My name is Susan Theophilopoulos I am a registered nurse working at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota FL. I have listened with much interest to the pass year’s campaign promises, particularly those concerning health care. Working in the hospital as an acute care nurse I get to see first -hand the needs of the uninsured and the underinsured and the financial strain that their needs are placing on the hospitals. This problem is only going to get worse as our economic problems worsen and the number of unemployed increases. This population usually does not have a primary care physician so they come to the emergency room for their health care needs, all too often they end up admitted to the hospital because lack of follow-up care has caused their condition to worsen. When they have to be admitted to the hospital their hospital stays turn into weeks, sometimes months to assure that they receive the full course of the antibiotic therapy required. Those patients covered by some form of health insurance are admitted, stabilized and then discharged with proper follow-up care; their discharge often takes place within three days.
I have been discussing this growing problem with other health care workers, nurses, doctors, etc. and I have developed a plan, which if implemented with as little red tape as possible, just might help the situation.
I propose that the government set up small health care clinics in residential neighborhoods, not unlike the old corner grocer. These neighborhood clinics should be able to provide basic medical care and minor emergency care. They would be able to triage the patients and send those in need of hospitalization on to the nearest emergency room, sending their paper work with them to streamline the admission process. These clinics should be within blocks, not miles from the population that they serve. They should be able to provide, child care for cold, flu, vaccinations and well child check. Prenatal care, EKGs, basic x-ray and wound care as well as daily IV antibiotic therapy if indicated.
This sounds like a very lofty proposal and very expensive, but I propose that there are ways to contain the costs. First, the clinics can be small, housed in existing building, our banks are carrying many foreclosed houses on their books. They could be approached to sell some of these properties at a greatly reduced rate. Let’s face it, if one bank does not want to co- operate then perhaps the one down the block would be interested in taking advantage of the offer. Second the government would provide the equipment and medications needed to effectively run the clinics. Third it would become part of the licensure requirement, that if you are licensed to practice within the state, either as a doctor, nurse, respiratory therapist etc, then you are required to work free of charge at least one day each month in the clinic to which you have been assigned. These clinics need to be open 24 hours, and at least Monday thru Saturday, which is not difficult to accomplish, because health care professionals work days and nights, they would just be assigned their usual shift. Lastly, the people who live in the community that the clinic serves will be responsible for maintaining it, like keeping the interior clean, maintaining the landscaping so that the building does not become an eye-sore in the neighborhood. That way the community assumes ownership of their clinic and takes pride in it.
Perhaps this plan or something similar has been proposed in the past, and has fallen on deaf ears, but the time has come to put self serving greed behind us and reach out to our communities. Everyone who lives and works with in a community shares in this responsibility.

Theo

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Education

Let’s start with a subject near and dear to our hearts. That is the education of our young people. It seems that the American youth have fallen far behind the rest of the world in education. This is a sorry state of affairs from the greatest, richest most powerful country of the world. While children in Europe can speak at the very least two languages, American youth have trouble reading and writing English. Instead of setting high standards of education to insure that we produce the next generation of world leaders, we have dumbed-down our educational standards.
So just where does Mr. Obama stand on education. His website states “Barack Obama puts children first investing in early childhood education, making sure our schools are adequately funded and led by high-quality teachers, and reforming No Child Left Behind.” In the web site they write about the Zero to Five plan, starting education in infancy and moving toward a voluntary universal pre-school. They also speak of addressing the drop out crisis by obtaining more funding for the school districts to start personal academic plans and teaching teams. There is also vague talk of improving teachers through a system of education, and rewards.
Sounds great, but let’s take a reality check. On 11/18/08 Mrs. Obama enrolled the girls in a prestigious private school in the DC area. The Obama girls will not be taking advantage of the public education offered by the DC school district. That kind of school is OK for the people, but not for the Obama’s. Now we understand that security logistics might be challenging, so we may be forced to concede on this one if it were not for a statement printed in the New York Sun of Feb. 25, 2008. On the subject of school vouchers the Obama campaign released statement which stated, “Senator Obama has always been a critic of vouchers. Throughout his career, he has voted against voucher proposals and voiced concern for siphoning off resources from our public schools.”
So it would appear that Mr. Obama wants to try to put Band-Aids on a sinking ship called American education-just don’t aspire to send your kids to school with his girls, unless, of course you can afford it. Now I do not know where your little corner of the world is going with education, but down here in sunny Florida things is not looking real good. Manatee County is considering cutting ANOTHER $6.3M from the school operating budget, with more to come, and that is on top of the $21.4M that was cut even before the school year started. That looks pretty dismal for our kids. A litter further north in Pinellas county the school district is cutting $21M this year and another $40M next year. They will be closing 5 elementary schools and shifting the students to other neighborhood schools.Mr. Obama… I think you need a bigger band-aide.
Come on America, wake up-our children are our future, we need to educate them.
Call Washington, write to your leaders, and let them know that this state of affairs is unacceptable. We need to take action now. We need to be aware of where the government is spending OUR MONEY. Remember, it is our money. Remember the war that started over “TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION”. It is time for us all to speak up.

Theo