Medical Horror Stories, Physician Incompetence

Unfortunately, most Americans eventually experience one or more medical horror stories. One problem with American health care is that some (not all, not most, but some) doctors and hospital administrators are embarrassments to their profession. One answer to America's health care problems is to put the bad doctors and the deficient hospitals out of business.

Individuals who don't have health insurance and pay out of their own pockets for health care deserve more choices and better prices. In Dr. Gratzer's case (in a previous column), he was paying out of his own pocket, and was told (sort of) that the price for his wife's surgery was "negotiable." Shortly after that, the hospital's collection agency started dunning him for payment.

A few months after my wife had her devastating stroke in 1991, I received a notice of delinquency from a primary care physician (billing service I guess) saying that if the payment was not received immediately, it would be subject to collection and that my credit would be damaged, etc.

What was the "delinquent fee? It was $0.07 -- that's right, seven cents. I thought the doctor (Wendy Klein in Springfield, Vermont) and her service had lost their minds. How could any responsible business engage in such atrocious behavior? I never received an explanation. I refused to pay the seven cents.

I've also written about my brother's experience. He was indigent for various reasons, and he went into the emergency room because his blood pressure had dropped and he was faint. He was in the hospital for 30 hours. The diagnosis was "syncope," which means the symptoms he had. Syncope is one step up from a headache.

The first bill I saw was $22,600. There were many bills, all with wildly varying numbers -- making them up as they went along. I never received an explanation for the syncope -- until later, when a non-physician explained to me that what my brother had experienced was a vagus nerve problem. Vagus nerve problems and syncope go together like a horse-and-carriage. No one at the hospital, UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) gave any sort of coherent explanation.

My brother's family care doctor (Dr. Catena)? My brother because he had no money received free drugs from Pfizer and others. Pfizer insisted that they had to go to the doctor, assumed to be a responsible individual. The doctor's repeatedly "lost" the pills, meaning occasionally that my brother ran out of them. The doctor didn't give a damn and regarded having to receive and process the pills as an imposition -- i.e., he wasn't getting paid for his activities.

My experience (and I have many others, some perhaps worse, given my wife's condition) is that most people regard what goes on at hospitals as a giant scam, one designed to enrich the people involved (aside from the nurses and the maintenance personnel).

Two months after my wife emerged post-stroke from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital in New Hampshire, she let me know -- she has experessive aphasia -- that she expected to die soon.(That was 18 years ago, and she's fine). It turned out that none of the overpaid boobs at Hitchcock had even given her a prognosis, so she assumed she must be near death.

There is much more about Hitchcock. One guy (neurologist Dr. Williamson) making $330,000-plus a year put her on a Closed Circuit monitoring device . . . and then never checked the monitor. His explanation, "Hey, you know those CC devices cost a lot of money, and we need to keep them operating!" If one were allowed to punch eminent physicians, I would have given that creep, that incompetent, two black eyes. To him, my wife was not a human being; she was a revenue stream.

Yes, some physicians are superb, professionals actually dedicated to making their patients better. However, I look at many doctors, and I see . . . Dr. Williamson . . . with his $300,000 salary (now doubled I'm sure) and his five cent medicine. When I visualize that overpaid egotist, I see a person who's a menace to patients.

As you whould know, UPMC, with its $22,600 bill for my brother, is one step up from a criminal enterprise. In that regard, it's a major supporter of Cong. John Murtha. They have given him more than a quarter-million dollars in exchange for the many millions in earmarks he's given them.

I'm sure UPMC will thrive under socialized medicine. It will provide less care than it already does (if that is physically possible) and still make hefty sums.

I support a more traditional form of medicine not because the current system -- and the physicians who operate under it -- are free from flaws, some of them major, but rather because I believe a private enterprise approach will lead to the best quality care at the most reasonable costs.

Frankly, I wish at least a few more doctors (other than Dr. Gratzer) shared my perspective. Too many physicians -- and too many hospital administrators around the country are embarrassments to their profession. They generate hostility because they falsely assume they can do no wrong.

"First do no harm," and then physicians need to heal themselves.

William Russell, Heather Wilson: Excellence

Bulletin: If you want to support our troops -- and all of you do -- please be aware of the veterans who are running for Congress, including William T. Russell, Eric Egland, and Duncan Duane Hunter (the presidential candidate's son). Please be good enough to go to their web sites and offer them any assistance you can.

http://williamrussellforcongress.com/
http://ericegland.com/
http://hunterin08.com/

It's clearly time to send people to Congress who actually have first-hand knowledge of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Russell, Egland, and Hunter do.

Air Force veteran and former Rhodes Scholar Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico is running for the U.S. Senate seat in New Mexico. She's the only female veteran ever elected to Congress. Heather is a staunch supporter of the military and an expert on foreign affairs, especially in the Middle East. She's exactly the kind of person we need to improve the quality of government in DC. You can find her site at:
http://heatherforsenate.com/.

A Vets4Russell web site will be appearing soon, and I urge everyone to visit it. Veterans are a critical constituency for Murtha opponent William T. Russell. There are approximately 50,000 veterans in Russell's 12th Congressional District of PA. We won't get all of them, but we will get the vast majority of them. The damage Murtha has done with his irresponsible comments about Haditha is incalculable.

I'll be one of the contributors to the site.

I also urge everyone to visit the Web site of the only female veteran ever elected to Congress -- Air Force Academcy graduate and Rhodes Scholar Heather Wilson. She's running for the New Mexico Senate seat to replace Sen. Pete Domenici. You can find her at: http://heatherforsenate.com/.

The absolute best way we can "support our troops" is to elect quality people like William Russell and Heather Wilson. Contributing to these fine people is the best step we can take to improve the quality of our government. Please do so today!
steve maloney
http://camp2008victorya.blogspot.com/
http://stevemaloneygop.blogspot.com/

The absolutely critical challenge in the Russell Campaign are how to "detach" conservative Democrats from the Murtha column. In the 12th District, there are twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans.

However, many of those Democrats -- up to 45% -- have shown themselves willing to vote for Republican candidates. In 2004, President Bush -- not the most popular figure in PA -- got 49% of the vote against John Kerry. In fact, Bush won Murtha's home county (Cambria).

Murtha's recent statement that "The Surge is working" reflects the fact that he's feeling the "heat" from the Russell Campaign. Many veterans in the district look at Murtha's disgraceful statements about the Haditha Marines and wonder, "Gee, what's wrong with good ole John?"

The Russell Campaign needs to convince such people that Murtha has "lost it," that he's more concerned with preserving his own political power than protecting the troops. Many Democrats are beginning to recongize that but they're not quite willing -- yet -- to vote against Murtha.

Of course, Murtha gets conservative votes because many people in the District believe "He brings home the bacon!" As I've pointed out previously -- using Bureau of Labor Statistics data -- Murtha DOES NOT bring home the bacon.

Yes, he does use taxpayer dollars to bring some "captive jobs" to the Johnstown area. However, most of the District remains economically depressed. The median household income in the 12th is one of the lowest in the state -- about the same as inner-city districts in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Do conservative Democrats in the 12th know these things? A growing number do, but a majority still believes that Murtha has done great things for the District.

Murtha's focus in the 21st century has been to raise huge amounts of cash for his campaigns. Until the year 2000 -- and you can find this in OpenSecrets -- his campaign funds were about average, even though he rarely even had any opposition. He's had strong opposition only once in this century, but every two years he raises Brobdinagian funds that are double the congressional average.

In other words, if you want tens of millions in federal handouts ("earmarks") from John Murtha, you'd better be prepared to pony up with huge "donations." Apparentely, the funds get distributed back to various supporters, including his former aide Paul Magliochetti (of the PMA lobbying Group). Magliochetti makes millions from Murtha's actions -- and returns hundreds of thousands in campaign gifts.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has received tens of millions in federal dollars via Murtha. UPMC, also the former employer of Rep. Jason Altmire, is known for wildly overcharging patients and their insurers. This supposed "non-profit" generated a surplus (i.e., profit) of $460 million in the first nine months of 2007. UPMC has given more than $300,000 to Murtha in this century -- including $100,000 in 2007.

Are most conservative Democrats aware of the strange goings-on with campaign funds? Apparently, very few of them are. The notion that Murtha is "a good guy" is one of the abiding myths in the 12th District. But grown-ups eventually stop believing in myths.

There are real opportunities here for the Russell Campaign. Murtha's past electoral successes are based on illusions about who he is and what he does.