Summer resolution

July is leaving and I am exhausted. I don't know whether it is the heat, the new interns, working an extra day and a half this month, or the combination of these things. My computer is down just as I am getting a new lecture together. I have continuing medical education to finish. And oh, it has been 7 months since my last vacation. Since I still consider this job a vacation from my previous one, that really doesn't seem to be the problem. Anyway, it is obvious I have had trouble getting motivated to write anything here.

There are several issues I would like to address. One is how entitlement (Medicare and Medicaid) programs have created a group of entitled people. Heck, all Americans feel entitled or at least most of us think our health care should be paid for by someone else. Another issue is how the big business of medicine can control access to hospital services in a community. It happens with not for profits just as it does with the big for profit hospitals. A third issue is all the maneuvering to make bigger profits under the new health care laws. For years I have wondered how much better health care in this country would be if doctors (nurses, pharmacists, etc) just thought about the best way to take care of a patient. This is why I am so attracted to a single payer system.

I also have a bunch of stories. People who have touched me as I have gone through the past 19 months. These families are trying to do the best they can with what they have. In case no one else has noticed the economy is still pretty crummy. Most of the people I see who are trying to deal with it are under employed. They are working but not up to the level of their skill. A lot was said about education this week and I hope those in my kids' generation were paying attention.

So, on to August. I am going to walk, jog whatever I can stand in the heat that is. The heat will be here until October and just like practicing medicine in a changing enviroment it is something I to which I can adapt. Here is to a better job of getting words on the computer screen in August.