Fixing Medical Care

I just spent three weeks visiting a friend in the hospital. He was hit by a large SUV while riding his bicycle. I spent about 10 days visiting his sedated body in the ICU and 10 days in an "in between" care unit after they fixed his aorta and broken leg. What I found was that to an engineer's mind, the place is a mess.

First thing to fix: reveal costs. At no time was I or the patient told how much anything would cost. Since the patient was a visitor from Europe and had only $50k of medical insurance, I am pretty sure this was exceeded, but no one at any time seemed to know how much anything cost! I asked several doctors and nurses and they simply did not know. Name one other service provider who runs by not telling the client the costs! Since he was no conscience when he arrived at the hospital, he did not even sign anything that promised he would pay. I saw some accountant type come by the ICU several times with papers to sign, but once she saw he was not conscience, they eventually gave up. And who in their right mind would sign the papers they present, that basically say you will pay whatever it costs and not hold them responsible if the work is bad, and you are mained for life? You want to control medical costs in the USA? Put a price take on each treatment, drug, and procedure the patient can clearly see. I am frankly sick of getting insurance statements in the mail that have cryptic codes and almost no descriptions on them. I see no way I can determine if my own doctors are ripping off the insurance companies!

Next thing I noticed is a lack of simple orderly procedures. I did see one nurse whose job it was in ICU to double check that each patient was getting the proper drugs doctors prescribed. This was good. But much of the rest of the technology seemed way to man-intensive and fraught with possible errors. Some examples: my friend's blood pressure needed to be kept down to prevent a transected aorta from rupturing. One machine monitored blood pressure. Another dispensed (pumped) a beta blocker (blood pressure lowering drug) into his veins. But there was no cable connecting them together. What could have been a simple cable and bit of software to regulate the drug (just like a thermostat regulates the temperature in your home) was instead a manually process. A nurse would have to adjust the drug flow based on the measured blood pressure. If this was automated then adjustments could be made every minute instead of every few hours.

Another example: my friend had about 10 hoses connected to his IV with blood thinners, blood pressure medicines, sedation medicines, paralyzing medicines, etc in them. Over and over again I saw nurses hand trace clear hoses all the way to the various pumps and bags. Some would put hand made labels on the hoses trying to keep track of them, but the labels kept coming off. How about a drawer of colored markers? When a new hose is connected it would take about 2 seconds to mark it and allow easy visual tracing instantly?

Paying one engineer about one weeks salary could come up with many simple ideas to improve efficiency and improve health care, plus save a bundle of money! If anyone knows someone in the industry, let me know. I would glady do this for cost!