The question this week is why are the people of Cuyahoga County unhealthy and not using the Cleveland Clinic to capacity? As many believe that the population makes unhealthy decisions about their health, one thought is that the population patronizes hospitals other than the CC. These people probably feel more comfortable with the physicians of a smaller facility. The first thing we need to understand is that the CC is a hospital that boasts of specialty areas, and to keep these areas competing, the hospital as we learned in our reading invests in high tech equipment. More often than not, one needs a referral to see a physician there. The referral must be cleared by the insurance company. In the late 1990's, the practice of many insurance companies was to pay physicians not to refer patients to specialists. If you didn't know this, your treatment was skued.
Another possibility causing people's health to be compromised in the Cuyahoga County area might be the industrial run off. While we have EPA guidelines, they are not enforced on a regular basis. If the guidelines are enforced, the exodus of companies is huge.
I see more people trying to be healthy today than ever before, and I hope that they continue to practice at achieving their goals.
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I did not know that physicians were being paid to not refer their patients. Though that might be true, that would mean that everyone else in ohio would have the same amount of bad health so I dont think you can isolate the source to just the insurance companies being shady.
ReplyDeletePamela, first the picture of the church you included is not the one where we went to mass. Your picture is Santa Marie Nouva. You can tell by the tortoise obelisk out front. and the cathedral we went to is bigger. Actually that was not the question. I didn't ask why they don't use the clinic. I asked why if the Clinic is so good, why is CC so unhealthy?
ReplyDeleteI believe that I changed the picture. My point is that they don't receive the same care as patient at the clinic; therefore this might contribute to their poor health. I have no real answer as to why they have worse health than other counties; I can only give my thoughts of contributing factors. A lack of money can also be a contributing factor; as well as bad insurance practices and industrial pollution.
ReplyDeleteI think that I now have the right picture. I hope that you and I are the only ones reading your comments.
ReplyDeletePamela, You have the right picture. I think the whole world is reading our blogs (just kidding). I think you are absolutely right about the poverty level of the county. Cuyahoga has one of the highest unemployment level in the country. And poverty is directly associated with shorter life expectancy. I was just wondering whether the CC has responsibility to the community in which it exists? Given their superior knowledge of health and illness should they reach out to the poor of the county with neighborhood clinics or something like that.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about who reads the blogs. The blogs are intended to be a give and take and not just a final answer on any subject. Keep thinking and keep writing. Thanks for the great pictures from dinner!
Pam,
ReplyDeleteI like the approach you took to this blog. I didn't really think about the effects of industrial run off.