bad quality of healthcare in the military

[NAVYLABTECH08]

Did anyone happen to catch that piece on Katie Kouric about the doctor who misdiagnosed that skin cancer as a wart. They showed the guy all drawn up in his bed and suffering. They even found that the doctor actually wrote it that it was a melenoma on a note, but for some reason did not tell the patient. The next 20 minutes was bashing the entire military healthcare system. I'm no expert but I feel that you are not destined to die automatically if you get treated at a military facility.
Last week, we had a 19 year old girl die of an aggressive acute promyeloblastic leukemia. She presented with signs of fatigue and flu like symptoms during " flu season!" How many civilian hospitals would have admitted and drew blood on someone in that situation. Noone was expecting cancer with those symptoms. The point of this example is that military does no care about money when it comes does to ordering tests and sometimes the military " over order" tests to make sure the patient is diagnosed correctly.
I'm no idiot, I realize that there are a lot of mediocre docs in the service becasue of a million reasons you can find in other forums on this site. However, average does not me "bad doctor!" I think this piece was offensive and went off very well in scaring lots of people the the one reason why people make the military a career, free family healthcare, is flawed and their doctors are killers in disguise who should be sued over and over again!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MaximusD]

Did anyone happen to catch that piece on Katie Kouric about the doctor who misdiagnosed that skin cancer as a wart. They showed the guy all drawn up in his bed and suffering. They even found that the doctor actually wrote it that it was a melenoma on a note, but for some reason did not tell the patient. The next 20 minutes was bashing the entire military healthcare system. I'm no expert but I feel that you are not destined to die automatically if you get treated at a military facility.
Last week, we had a 19 year old girl die of an aggressive acute promyeloblastic leukemia. She presented with signs of fatigue and flu like symptoms during " flu season!" How many civilian hospitals would have admitted and drew blood on someone in that situation. Noone was expecting cancer with those symptoms. The point of this example is that military does no care about money when it comes does to ordering tests and sometimes the military " over order" tests to make sure the patient is diagnosed correctly.
I'm no idiot, I realize that there are a lot of mediocre docs in the service becasue of a million reasons you can find in other forums on this site. However, average does not me "bad doctor!" I think this piece was offensive and went off very well in scaring lots of people the the one reason why people make the military a career, free family healthcare, is flawed and their doctors are killers in disguise who should be sued over and over again!

Advice: Develop thicker skin.

 

[USAFdoc]

I'm no idiot, I realize that there are a lot of mediocre docs in the service becasue of a million reasons you can find in other forums on this site. However, average does not me "bad doctor!" I think this piece was offensive and went off very well in scaring lots of people the the one reason why people make the military a career, free family healthcare, is flawed and their doctors are killers in disguise who should be sued over and over again!

The problem with MilMed is not so much the quality of the doc/nurse (although good luck finding an experienced doc because 90% get out asap). The more pressing problems are the support network (techs, severe undermanning, no avail charts, unsupervised novice PAs, lack of continuity, deployments, lack of control for docs to institute changes) etc.... that compromises care the most.

 

[elderjack21]

The problem with MilMed is not so much the quality of the doc/nurse (although good luck finding an experienced doc because 90% get out asap). The more pressing problems are the support network (techs, severe undermanning, no avail charts, unsupervised novice PAs, lack of continuity, deployments, lack of control for docs to institute changes) etc.... that compromises care the most.

It seems like if you don't live in the right areas of the country, or state, or even your city, don't have great health insurance, you may be stuck with many of the same problems. Only difference is on the outside, your medical expenses can bankrupt you and your family...love the American healthcare system! But then again, it is easier to sue someone...but at that point it may be too late for you in any case.

I don't think there is any way to keep most of the docs in after their committment given the strength of market forces in the US, even though this would help many of the problems. If the US went to a single payer system, or worse yet, some national health care system like in UK, then you might be able to keep some docs in...until then there aren't that many patriots left who are willing to stay in. (And I am not saying you are more patriotic if you stay in...just saying you have to have some real compelling reasons to stay in...or be mentally ill. I think I am just as patriotic as the next guy for having served my 4 years and gotten out)

 

[alpha62]

Advice: Develop thicker skin.

counter-transference : it's just not for breakfast anymore