(Snippets from the frontline)
Escaping profiteers
In almost four decades of practicing medicine, I’ve never had a patient say “Please doctor, send me to a nursing home!”
Is it the reputation of hearing screaming demented patients throughout the night; the smell of urine and loss of bodily function permeating into clothes and skin; or the daily lineup of wheelchairs with incessant television and bingo?
If you are old, ill, with slow speech and memory, or having difficulty with mobility, in the name of rationed healthcare (and profit) you are relegated to a nursing home.
In the past, the need for hospitalization resulted in stabilization, diagnosis, treatment, recuperation, then going home.
Profiteers now place a majority of these patients in nursing homes and it starts at the doorstep of hospitals, and is especially detrimental to elder seniors.
They lose independence, purpose, meaningful activity, confidence, and communication skills. They become that screaming patient without being demented. Who in their right mind would not be depressed?
Doing housecalls over 30 years has taught me elder seniors can stay in their home.
We, as a society and through technology, must harness creative ideas allowing seniors to escape profiteers and survive at home as human beings.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
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