Associated Press – August 7, 2007:
U.S. hospitals are increasingly shutting down their burn centers in a trend experts say could leave the nation unable to handle widespread burn casualties from a fiery terrorist attack or other major disaster.
Experts say burn centers are expensive to maintain and often lose money because they are staffed with highly specialized surgeons and nurses and stocked with sophisticated equipment designed to ease patients’ excruciating pain, fend off deadly complications and promote healing.
The number of burn centers in the U.S. has dropped from 132 in 2004 to 127, and burn beds have fallen from 1,897 to 1,820, according to American Burn Association records compiled from voluntary reporting by hospitals.
“People ought to be pretty frightened by this,” said Dr. Barbara Latenser, burn center director at the University of Iowa Hospitals. “Some people who live out West, they are 800 miles from a burn center.”
SN, have you been frequenting buycostumes.com?
I’m not at all surprised by this turn of events. Medicine, like everything else down there, is seen as a profitable venture, rather than a public service. Profit usually trumps anything else, especially in the US. That’s one of the reasons I prefer living in Canada.
burn
This is one of the sorriest pieces of journalism I’ve seen. Five burn centers and less than 5% of the beds available close three years ago and we “ought to be frightened by this?”
I know somebody’s going to say that I’m Michael Moore or something – but isn’t this pretty much proof that for-profit health care is a bad idea for the majority of the population? THere are lots of things that are *not* profitable in health care: burn victims, preventative care (more profitable to prescribe a person statins then tell them to eat foods with high fiber and low glycemic values and exercise), and so forth.
I hear often “Well, if you’re hurt, the emergency room *has* to take care of you!”. Yeah – until you go bankrupt after getting your head bonked and the $40,000 repair bill drains you dry, so now its even harder to get a better education or training (ect) and get paid better.
The more I look at it, the more I think that the US adopting a combination of the British and Canadian system would be a good thing – give everybody a chance to be healthy, this makes for a more productive populace, which leads to more money being generated overall, andhopefully less reliance on drug treatments as we encourage people to be healthier through incentives (tax breaks for non-smokers, etc). Those who can pay for their high colonics or whatever can pay private doctors.
I know – someone’s about to tell me I’m a socialist, or that people die in Canada waiting six months to see a doctor about a mole (then again, it took the doctor six months to see me just for a physical, so that doesn’t bother me). But there’s clearly a problem here, and we can either work together to watch each others backs, or continue to let people fall through the cracks and let things get worse.
You know something Funny…
Consumerism WORKS…
Commercialism, is REALLY getting harsh..
And MONEY is driving this country INTO the GROUND.
Hospitals pay:
Doctors.
Drugs,
Equipment,
Insurance,
AND ON AND ON…
WHERE can a person that Likes to HELP/GIVE work???
How many burn centers and burn beds are there in Canada.
I am with Mike B. How many times do we here how bad something is and the quote is always from an organization or individual that will profit from us spending more money on it. Also if you read the linked story you will find this…
“Wolfson said that if burn beds are full, patients can be taken to trauma units. Also, he said some veterans hospitals have beds that could be used in a fiery catastrophe. And he said burn centers can be expanded in an emergency.”
So how many beds do we really have? And I don’t think we we ever have enough for the “…acknowledged that a disaster such as nuclear blast in a large urban area could produce thousands of burn victims”. If that is the goal there is going to be a lot of wasted space and then we can start complaining that we are wasting federal money on beds that are going unused.
#4
OK, the changes aren’t large (a decrease of a few percent), but at the same time, the trend is opposite to the population trend. The population has increased during this 3-year period.
So, while the changes may not be very dramatic (I’m not sure they are), this trend should not be allowed to continue.
one key thing to consider — it is a well-documented fact that we american pay way more in premiums than we would in increased taxes for basic health services
what we need is an opt-in govt healthcare system wherein you could pay for premium care on your own, or opt to pay the healthcare tax for the govt supplied version – it would work just like school vouchers and introduce some free-market competition into medicare, etc
1.) in general, the free market’s influence in medicine can be credited for many wonderful machines that have turned many heretofore major surgeries into outpatient procedures
2.) the lottery “get maximum cash for your injuries” tort madness in this nation has driven many doctors out of the states where malpractice insurance is too expensive even for a doctor’s salary
3.) medicare’s lack of competition actually distorts the free market by being an easy target for over-billing, etc.
4.) government run health care would become a bloated sack of maddening inefficiency and waste — pick any government agency for an example of how well the government does anything
that having been said — what is the government’s job then to care for the citizens from which it derives its power and budget?
i would far prefer to have average health care than pay through the nose — as the wife and i do now — for slightly above average healthcare
>>what is the government’s job then
Well, if you listen to the current regime of Little Kind Dumbya, it’s to spy on citizens without having to document whom they spied on or why they did the spying, to cut funds for any program that could possibly benefit the majority of Americans, start bloody wars against tin-horn despots that pose no threat to us, mock the Constitution, and insure that Halliburton shareholders are well compensated. There are more responsibilities, but they’re all in the same general category.
As to the reduction of “only” 5% in 3 years, in 30 years that’s a 50% reduction. Good trend, gummint. And I guess a 5% reduction isn’t that scary right now, unless you happen to be one of the people who now has to go 1200 miles instead of only 800 to get to a burn center.
And as to going to emergency rooms for life-threatening burns, Jesus. Give me a break. Anyone who’s ever spent 4 hours in an emergency room waiting to see a 14-year-old intern who seems to be Marishi Mahesh Yogi’s great-great grandson would rather take a cyanide pill than go through that, waiting with 3rd-degree burns over 60% of their body.
The whole trend is just wrong, on so many levels. 2008 elections: BRING IT ON!
#11,
2008 elections: DON’T MATTER.
The Dems are just as bad as the Rethugs. They just gave the Chimperor even more spy powers. They don’t care about this country’s future any more than the Rethugs. President Hillary or Obama will continue the spy programs, oil profit wars, and insane debt increases. Bush only gave the big rolling snowball a bigger-than-usual nudge.
5 burn units out of 132 doesn’t seem like a lot. Unless one of the 5 is near you.
This doesn’t seem like a crisis yet???
Send them to Cuba, they have excellent burn centers there.
#10, grog,
2.) the lottery “get maximum cash for your injuries” tort madness in this nation has driven many doctors out of the states where malpractice insurance is too expensive even for a doctor’s salary
I disagree on this point. It is the bad doctors that injure patients. It was also found that malpractice caps had no effect upon insurance rates compared to states where there were no caps.
The medical associations must weed out bad doctors. A friend’s husband had four screws put in his neck. The surgeon botched it so bad, he had to call in his partner in the middle of the surgery to help him. While the patient wasn’t crippled, he did lose some use of his lower body. The surgeon had three on going malpractice suits when this went into discovery, and had settled some others from his previous State. If his license had been pulled or restricted before he moved here then there wouldn’t be four residents in this State having problems.
@#11- Of *course* this has something to do with Bush. Sheesh. My kitten was ran over this week- a victim of America’s dependence on oil and Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
Leaving that alone: 5 centers in one year is not a trend. 5 centers *per year* over a period of time would be. The data given is highly inconclusive. What happened the year before? The year after? Were any centers opened over that 3 year spread? Why is he focusing on 2004? Why not last year, which would be much more relevant data?
Bottom line: he probably cherry-picked the data that would look the worst. And even that data was pretty anemic.
This is the U.S. We don’t have good health care. Most people don’t even want good (i.e. universal) health care. Just give ‘em some barbecue sauce and send them on their way.
Burn units are highly specialized and are usually regional and placed near the larger concentrations of possible patients. Not every little podunk or even every state needs or can afford to have a burn center.
Having to be sent 1200 miles is just plain bullshit. If you live in the mountains of Idaho, you might have to be transported the 800 miles, but thats rare.
I swear, some of you are just plain bitcher’s and moaners about anything and everything. Mustard, I got news for you….get on anti-depressents NOW, because it won’t matter a twit who gets elected in 2008, NOTHING….do you hear this??…NOTHING will change but occupant of the WH, so you won’t fall into a total deep depression.
Have any of you been watching the UK for the last couple years? Those people pay a minimum of 42% in taxes, no exceptions or opt outs like here, and they get a health care system that is so poor even the Ministers in charge go private care. They spend as much or close to it as we do and have one third the drugs or equipment or allowable care than Medicare(which is no bargin).
The Canadian system isn’t much better, other wise you wouldn’t see so many Canadians seeing specialists in almost every city with in 100 miles south of the Canadian/US border. Not small numbers, but large numbers.
As to just telling people to eat right, what world do you come from John Hummel?? It might work with about 30% of the younger generation but what about all the older ones…the 40 y/o’s and above who have spent their lives living life as they thought it was to lived, only to find out the experts had it all wrong. Are we just going to say *tough* diet and exercise, get that wheelchair movin old woman?
This is the blog that rips a new one for every HMO that gets mentioned in a topic header, but your all so willing to basically go into a National HMO system, because thats what Canadian and UK health care is, and in the case of the UK….not even as generous as the worst HMO’s in this country.
Our system needs desperate overhaul……starting with Medicare and working our way down. Medicare has to be made competitive in drugs and fee’s. Everyone, regardless of ability to pay must have some form of catastrophic care provided through tax incentives or for those who earn too little, subsidies. All groups must have some form of subsidised health care costs, mixed with a means tested pay system.
But the road to total disaster is paved in ***goverment run health care***.
#18, joshua,
Aahh, once again you’re spouting Rush Limbaugh. If you think the Canadians are flocking across the border then I suggest you post some links that confirm that. I’ll grant there are probably some, especially for cosmetic and elective surgeries. There are also many Americans crossing the border looking for ANY health care.
Mister Mustard may “bitch & moan”, but at least he isn’t into inventing crap to post.
#19…Fusion….I have a novel idea…you post the link that proves me wrong.
As to Mustards posts, they are a bit over the top for me on politics, but unlike you, he posts comments on many other subjects that are usually without your brand of mud slinging, name calling and vitriole. Now, if we could calm him down on politics all would be well with the world.
I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh, or for that matter any right wing zealots. I read many news sites and online papers of all ideologies. Since you seem to know so much of what the right wingers are saying, maybe it’s you that listens to them…..when your not quoting word for word the DailyKos.