NYT: Civilian health care system better than military
According to the New York Times, compared to the civilian health care system, in the military system (not the VA) “scrutiny is sporadic and avoidable errors are chronic”.
The Times’s examination, based on Pentagon studies, court records, analyses of thousands of pages of data, and interviews with current and former military health officials and workers, indicates that the military lags behind many civilian hospital systems in protecting patients from harm. The reasons, military doctors and nurses said, are rooted in a compartmentalized system of leadership, a culture of interservice secrecy and an overall failure to make patient safety a top priority.
I’m just one guy, but I used the military health care system more often since I retired than did while I was on active duty and I haven’t seen any of this. I’ve had surgery at Walter Reed (both of them) and Fort Belvoir.
I’ve also been treated at local civilian hospitals, and I trust military doctors more than I trust civilian doctors. You know when the doctor tells me that I had a “suspected heart event” and he wants to do an angiogram, I get suspicious. I think he wanted to do a wallet-ectomy.
The doctors I’ve had who were in the Army are professional at the tops of their profession. They’ve always been straight with me and they’ve always had my health at the forefront of their treatment.
Of course, your experience may be different. But, I’m just saying that my experience with the military health care system doesn’t look anything like what the NY Times tries to make it look. Did I mention that my wife used to work at (old) Walter Reed for six years (during the Iraq War)? Her only complaints were about the administrative staff and not the medical staff.
Category: Walter Reed
The best health care I ever received was while on AD in the military. No muss no fuss, just took care of what was wrong and leave off the unnecessary tests and costly extras, unlike civilian healthcare. All who treated me from doctors to nurses to the PAs were the highest in professionalism and knowledge.
And no, “We can see you in six weeks” crap.
Here’s the URL for my post, “SURVIVING MY HEART ATTACK”, which describes my hospitalization and treatment at Keesler Air Force Base by 81st Medical Group:
http://writesong.blogspot.com/2013/12/surviving-my-first-heart-attack.html
How do you know the NYT is lying?
Their printing press is moving.
The article covers data from the Pentagon itself, it’s not the NYT just doing it’s usual making shit up.
If the rules for care require a follow-up investigation into an unexpected death and that done less than half the time (100 of 239) incidents that needs to be addressed. There are standards for a reason. Those who don’t follow the standard at any military training facility fail out of class. We should expect at least the same response to those tasked with providing care to our troops. It’s not like the troops have a choice. I can decide to use one of 6 different hospitals within a 20 minute drive of my home. A member of the military often doesn’t have that option.
When there is an unexpected outcome and the rules require a follow-up those responsible should do their job or face termination. That’s not at all unreasonable.