Staff Meeting 2012

I sat through an hour of bloviations by various administrators about how the new health care law will impact our industry.  As I looked around the room and watched the faces of my fellow workhorses, they appeared disconnected from one another and from this room. They were either thinking of problems they were haunted by at work or problems they are yet to face at home.  I guess most of us need an escape during these times.

The message from administration was pretty simple: more work and less hay, giddy-up. The funny thing is that the same administrators who tell us to make do with less, have been looting us for years. They spent and keep spending millions of dollars on useless projects that are run by their friends and school dropout relatives.

The head honcho gave a short speech about how he had to duck out from another important meeting because he was "axed" to come here and grace us with his presence, and how happy he is to see some of the old faces again.  We were told to count our blessings but that some of us may need to be fired in the near future because there is just not enough money to offer all the services our hospital offers to this neighborhood. Weird: every offered service is a money drain.

One of the changes we're told to expect is that patient satisfaction will be tied to our reimbursement; that is if patients do not rate our hospital highly enough, our reimbursement will be cut by 7%.  On the surface it seems like a reasonable plan. However, that surface becomes very quickly tainted if one ponders the ramifications of this system being applied to the county hospital.

Every county hospital cares for a population of pissed off, poorly educated, non-compliant, and self destructive psychopaths if compared to the group usually seen in a nice private hospital.  These folks will complain no matter how well they are treated and the hospital will have to cut the available services. The doctors will be wise to get the hell out of there as soon as they're able. The residents will still get their training there, because you can save a lot with slave labor.

I guess that this game has been going on for years, and obamacare is just the latest installment. Just another way to loot us. Why should you be concerned about something that is specific to my specific institution? Because, it's not just health care. It is every industry in America.  Al Gore's carbon credits will also become the law of the land.