Surprise!

So, here is what happens when the department of Health decides to pay you your annual unannounced survey visit: Everyone craps the bed (no incontinence jokes please)

There is calamity along the lines of prohibition era “Oh #$%!  The feds are here!  Hide the whiskey barrels and dump out the beer!!”

All misplaced anxiety, IMO.  While they are typically not overly friendly and they often make my life somewhat more stressful than it needs to be, they really just have a job to do.  They are also, for the most part, just following the direction of their superiors.  If some profit mongering nut bag or apathetic clinical malcontent wasn’t out there abusing the system (and potentially residents), stealing medications and creating false reimbursements, they wouldn’t have to routinely put us through such paces and scrutinize our every hand-washing, hand-counted french fry and dotted ‘i’ and crossed ‘t’ in a medical chart.

That said, when the running joke in your industry is that you have more documented regulations governing your services than the US nuclear industry does, do we really think that all of this is an efficient use of resources?  I mean, I fully understand that our nation is a bottomless pit of gold and silver and that we have no reason to focus on market efficiencies but shouldn’t we do it just because?  (This last bit is dripping with sarcasm….I say this to prevent being labeled a heretic).  Our esteemed elected officials have really done a nice job of tangling the web just a little bit tighter.  I mean, who doesn’t like red tape? 

So what do we do?  (A question that I do believe that our representation on Captiol Hill does ask itself on a routine basis).  They have just been feeding the beast for so long that I doubt that many of them feel that a real solution is even scalable anymore.  We are left looking for a pioneering idea that would really get to the root of the situation.  The problem is, we won’t vote for it.  Why?  Because we are too scared.  Change is too intimidating.  The lemming approach is easier.  It doesn’t require us to be informed voters. 

Anyone think that is going to change?  Or, asked a different way, are we as a nation raising our intelligence quotient as it relates to legislation that affects our every day lives?…..

:sigh:

(in our next installment:  How to inspire an entire generation of do-nothings.  Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to write.  I’ll get to it after Dr. Phil)