Philosophies of Medical Care
Slow medicine is a philosophy and set of practices that believes in a conservative medical approach to both acute and chronic care… practices that sharply contrast with UCLA medicine….
UCLA medicine is the status quo where the hospital is the center of the medical universe; where care is often uncoordinated and hurried, and where cure is the only acceptable outcome for both patient and physician. I call it UCLA medicine because the CEO of that well-regarded medical center was quoted in a New York Times Sunday Magazine article as saying, “If you come into this hospital, we’re not going to let you die.”
This is from a post by Jon Skinner at The Health Care Blog.
This is an interesting concept. But the issue is a matter of degrees. Britain and Canada arguable are examples of slow medicine, where shortages of advanced medications and rationing by waiting are common. In slow medicine, the interests of the payer are placed ahead of patients’ interests to some degree, when resources are rationed.
Contrast this to the UCLA-model where the interested of patients and providers are mostly aligned but the interests of the third-party payer are not considered. The goal should be how to find a happy medium where the interests of all three parties are aligned.
There are now 222 waivers and counting.
Thought y’all should know.
What seems like common practice in health care would be laughable anywhere else. Can you imagine having an oil leak in your car, only for the mechanic to say that he practices a “slow repair” philosophy?
This is a false dichotomy and typical of the simplistic reasoning deployed to make a government run health system more palatable to Americans. Does the article offer any proof that conservative care has been tried and found wanting before people end up in the hospital?
Switch the UCLA statement around and ask if you really want to go to a hospital that will let you die?
It would be nice to see a discussion of how the government run payments system for the heaviest hospital users, people on Medicaid and Medicare, contributes to the hurried care deplored in the article.
Sounds a little like the “slow foods” movement: guru’s love it, normal people might dabble in it, but the rest of us just want our hamburger now.
Tom, thanks for the pointer.
You’re welcome!
While I wish I could claim credit for this posting, I can’t — Kent Bottles is the author.
JS