Letters to the Editor
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Hatzolah is not a cult
Laura Miller talks about Hatzolah as if it were a religious sect or a group of Gaza insurgents. To the best of my knowledge, "Hatzolah" simply means "rescue." Also, "ha" means "the," and the word is singular, so saying "The Hatzolah" or "Hatzolah have clout" is peculiar. In the many years I've watched my parents being transported by the caring people of Hatzolah, I've never heard anyone put a "the" in front of it.
Of course, if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me.
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I can hardly wait for the no longer latent racism of Salon to boil out now.
Orthodox Jews, medical care, multiculturalism.....and so the Salonpogrom continues. Even the writer of the article is starting to suffer from it.
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Electro Robot
You're reading racism into the article 'cause that's what you want to see. Salon could post "Today I had a sandwich" and you'd find racism in it. Perhaps you need a vacation.
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Hardly racism
To suggest that a country where everyone speaks a different language, has different values, and minimal interaction, might not ultimately be viable.
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stop worshiping the damn "Doctor"
Your article does what so many articles in the media do: worshiping the damned "Doctor" at the expense of NURSES, midwives, and nurse practitioners. I wish I could read one of these articles once that was not physician - centric. Oh well I guess I'll have to write one.
You also did mention the hierarchy of the hospital. Well, duh. The hospital system evolved from the military and religious orders. It is hierarchy personified. As a nurse who is about to leave this miserable profession, I will vouch that there IS a pecking order and it DOES wear you down. Everything from media glorification of the MD to being belittled and treated as a subordinate at work is demeaning and humiliating. I don't blame the aides and orderlies for not killing themselves at work. The MD you quote in the article just doesn't get it. Why the hell should the orderly bust his ass for 12/hour and no respect? I would do the minimum of my job, too.
Nursing administration is another nightmare. RNs are treated as replaceable pack animals who do a very physically dangerous job yet we are told if we are injured it is our fault ... we are expected to please patients before performing life saving professional care ... the list goes on. Don't get me started on those entitled groups of patients mentioned in the article -- the princesses -- there's others. They can make your life miserable at work. Then there's the groups that don't speak up and are grateful for whatever care you give them. It breaks your heart. Check out the forums at www.allnurses.com and you'll get an earful from nurses.
-- BitchMidwife
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Patient US
Laura has taken us into a drama that appeals to "shockmongers" simply for its everpresent threat in all our lives. We go to the hospital: we may have to go in minutes. The multicultural reality is that humans are mortal, and suffering as a result.
Why review this book instead of one about success, etc.? An after-effect of reading too much political mixed-up message is: Can this society be saved - at all? "Hospital" is a metaphor of tragic, uncontrollable, lottery-lucky or damned-to-eternity prognosis for us. Perhaps not unlike a MidEast war, terrorism that cannot be extinguished because its root causes - Orthodox Zionists insist that nothing can be negotiated with Palestine peoples because because because - remain unlimited without end.
Yes, the rascism of diaspora appears in this narrative as with any group that insists upon autonomous function in a foreign society. Who sees The Chinese as the up-and-coming threat to this community of medical/financial/cultural problems? Almost no one after reading this piece - people who are willing to give up, die are the meat-and-potatoes of mythic "stoicism" - about the forces at work in a complex hierarchy community.
We want to believe that they will be there for us, but as this tale clearly indicates, conflicts, bottlenecks and egos rule - against our chances.
If the book is as good as her last outing bashing Hollywood, sales will exceed all expectations, and the cancer of publishing an accurate, dramatic, personalized institutional memoir will go into remission. The oncologists may be surprised.
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Lynx
check out the rowling letter. QED
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Nurses
I recently had a quadruple bypass, spending six days in the hospital recovering.
The operation, at every step, was performed as a symphony. Everything worked, and everything worked well.
Next to the surgical team my gratitude goes to the nurses and recovery support staff. These people work too hard to be as pleasant and effective as they are. The amount of abuse that some patients heap upon nurses is hard to believe but, nurses continue to provide excellent care and a pleasing demeanor.
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Mamonides is a premier example of whats wrong with medicine in the US
I interviewed there for a job . After the tour, the assistant director turned to me and said "Now, here's the story". They have a policy of UNINTERRUPTED family visitors.And EVERYBODY who was visiting was wondering why you didn't spend "much more time with my husband,who obviously needs your CONSTANT care" .And every one of those visitors "knew someone" on the executive board, so if you knew what was good for you, you'd better drop everything and hold their hand.
Medicine , about 10-15 yrs ago, went from being a profession to being a BUSINESS. Those patients stopped becoming patients, and became CUSTOMERS. And these days , the customer is ALWAYS right . It doesn't matter if you're a great doctor, nurse, or orderly, if you get a complaint by someone who was angry you didn't spend the entire time with them, even though you had 20 other people to see,you are marked by administration as a "problem". Mamonides , because of its concentrated demographic, is just SLIGHTLY worse than most other hospitals who treat every patient as though. if they want fries with that, they'll get it ( even if they don't need it) ,and conversely, its medical staff as glorified fry cooks.
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@jane doe
It's not just the MD's; trust me, RN's do it too. I did two terms as an Air Force medic, in an environment where doctors and nurses (both groups are officers) and enlisted medical techs all generally treat each other with respect. I was shocked when I entered the civilian medical world at how poorly technical personnel are generally treated. Not by the doctors, mind you, who are generally easy to get along with, but by the nurses. I don't want to make it sound like all nurses are arrogant and contemptuous toward the techs -- certainly I worked with plenty of good ones -- but a hell of a lot of them are. The civilian medical world is actually more hierarchical in my experience than the military, and since the hierarchy isn't as clearly codified (in the military, you know immediately where someone stands by looking at their sleeve or their collar) it seems like people are more vicious in defending what they see as their turf.