As COVID-19 swept throughout the United States in 2020, well being care professionals and sufferers shortly realized in regards to the flaws within the public well being system. Questions arose about equitable entry to well being care, the position of insurance coverage and the standard of care in public hospitals serving uninsured folks versus personal hospitals serving folks with personal insurance coverage. Taking the general public Ben Taub Hospital—Houston’s “largest hospital for the poor . . . who cannot afford medical care”—for instance, medical researcher and working towards doctor Ricardo Nuila explores these points in The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine.
Nuila has been an attending doctor at Ben Taub for over 10 years, and he has found that “good care comes from connecting with your patients in whatever way you’re able.” Using the tales of 5 sufferers, Nuila weaves an intricate net of questions in regards to the shortcomings of insurance coverage and company drugs and divulges how Ben Taub has succeeded in offering entry to well being look after people who find themselves medically and financially weak.
For instance, there’s Christian, a affected person with persistent kidney illness who developed mysterious, debilitating knee ache. Because he was uninsured and needed to pay out of pocket for his prognosis and therapy, he traveled to a clinic in Mexico the place he hoped his cash would go additional. A couple of weeks into his remedy, his knee ache diminished, and he moved again to Houston—however inside weeks, he discovered himself dealing with the identical medical points once more. When his kidneys began to fail and the insurance coverage firm denied him protection, his mom admitted him to Ben Taub, the place he began receiving hemodialysis regularly and finally left the hospital with hope.
Readers additionally meet Ebonie, who was 19 weeks into her being pregnant and experiencing harmful ranges of obstetric bleeding. After bouncing from hospital to hospital, she finally landed at Ben Taub, the place Nuila and one other physician developed a plan to take care of bleeding sooner or later and made certain she could be admitted to Ben Taub when it occurred. Ben Taub additionally helped Ebonie apply for Medicaid so she would have an insurance coverage security internet. Through his personal experiences, and people of his sufferers and fellow well being care professionals, Nuila paints an image of a world the place “people find healthcare and revere it like treasure.”
The People’s Hospital is an inspiring e book that raises essential questions in regards to the future of American well being care. Nuila illustrates that hospitals that make holistic choices about care present simpler and equitable therapy than people who ask merely in regards to the means of sufferers to cowl bills, reminding readers that the best well being care techniques all the time elevate people and their wants over financial acquire.
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