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I care about my health not the health care industry. Take care of your body and live freely without needing healthcare. Healthcare cost is unsustainable in this country unless people be more accountable to their lifestyle choices.
Majority of people thinks that exercise is an excuse for indulging on bad foods.
There are no Level One trauma centers in many rural areas. Hopefully you will never need one, but that proximity could save your life if you were in an serious accident that required immediate intervention in a L1 center. Otherwise, it's usually an airlift to a city that has one and that could take an hour depending on your location. Yes you will be treated en-route but if your injury requires a major surgery that won't happen until you get to the OR in the trauma center.
My question (if anyone knows the answer): I have a relative in a small South Carolina town who had major heart issue few years ago, almost died because fog prevented air transport to closest Trauma 1 (Charleston) so he was driven 1 hour there.
Savannah looks closer to make that drive than Charleston. Are local ER's/ambulances sent to same-state trauma centers?
First let's define "best health care in the country" and then we can argue the case.
If "best health care in the country" means cutting edge, top notch doctors and procedures, then yes, one has to go to the bigger cities as that's where these attributes are found, like organ transplants, or highly specialized care, etc.
If "best health care in the country" means we are treated nice by the staff for routine or minor events then most any hospital should do fine, even in remote areas.
But the cost of running hospitals, especially the cutting edge, top notch ones, means you won't get a heart transplant in remote areas of our vast midwest agricultural regions, the remote deserts and wilderness areas of western states, or most of the hilly areas of Appalachia or the rural areas of New England states.
The for-profit medical industry continues to close facilities in low population areas due to lack of paying customers and/or inability to get doctors to move to such regions. If we had a true public health service with a universal single payer system then we could afford to build and run hospitals in rural areas since the profit motive would be off the table. We don't run our police, fire, highways, airways, waterways and schools as for-profit operations, nor should we be doing that for health care.
The constant urgency to make as much profit as possible means a further concentration of for-profit medical care in densely population regions.
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Last edited by Mike from back east; 09-21-2023 at 09:18 AM..
Do you think that one has to go to the biggest cities for the best health care in this country?
No, I don't think so.
In fact, I think the care provided by the very finest doctors and health care in the world becomes insignificant when compared to the health care you could provide for yourself through proper diet and exercise.
When I had to have kidney surgery about 10 years ago, the special equipment that was needed was not available in Colorado Springs, where I was living at the time. So I said to the surgeon, "So I guess I will have to go to Denver for this". But he explained that once a month for 2 days the equipment would be brought down to Colorado Springs from a sister hospital in Denver, and they would do 2 days worth of surgeries of the type I was having.
Good that I didn't have to travel, but maybe not so good having nurses, etc., who were not as familiar with the equipment?
The OP hasn't posted anything in CD since 5/22. I wonder if he's still alive and enjoying the wonderful health care in Knoxville.
I personally don't feel the need to have access to the "best" at this time. However, for a hypothetical situation such as having a knee replacement, I'd probably look to do it somewhere else besides Juneau or Hilo.
I live in the Boston area with complex medical needs (stage IV cancer diagnosis at 23, lots of late term effects 12 years later into survivorship) and also can compare with my partner's parents in a small city in upstate NY, my parents in the Atlanta exburbs, and my grandmother, brother, and brother's in-laws in Portland, Maine. Watching how those others deal with medical care is why I prioritize staying in Boston despite the expense.
My partner's family has a major hospital in town, yet for just about anything end up having to go to Albany. Hip replacements, ankle surgery, second opinions, the whole bit. One of their employees was just diagnosed with cancer and is looking at having to make a pretty sizable commute to a different city because their local hospital's cancer center has minimal experience with her type of cancer.
My parents have a lot of options, but it can be 2 hours to get to them. It's a real challenge to maintain employment when needing to make 2 hour trips each way to see a specialist, but at least once they're actually in Atlanta they're set.
Portland has a lot of medical care, but I ran into *tons* of Mainers in my Boston cancer center. My SIL recently had a neurological event and ended up coming to Boston for diagnosis because there were so few specialists in Portland and the time it took to get an appointment was too long. I've been super unhappy with the care my grandmother receives in hospitals there compared to when she lived closer to Boston, but unfortunately her dwindling retirement savings don't allow her to live closer to me where I could take her to appointments.
So, for me - especially as I age - it's either a major city or city with excellent medical facilities and living close enough that if I needed to go for daily or weekly appointments it wouldn't be too onerous.
I am curious what some of you think. I do not think that is the case.
I have experience with this, at least how things have gone.
I lived in LA and had to go to Cedars Sinai for appendicitis; the health care and doctors and nurses were all A+.
I had great doctors when I lived in LA....but I have great ones here, too.
My spine surgeon I saw today just got back from teaching a seminar in Rockefeller Center. Obviously he is an excellent physician. Very impressed, without any of this I would still grade him A+. The guy is like 35 years old. I would grade my GP, skin doctor, and one or two others A or A+ as well. (I don't see skin doc or specialists often, but when I do) Nothing below excellent. Not exaggerating, I love all of my doctors. If there's ever a problem they're right there and will call me at the end of the day.
I do not think the stereotype is true that you need a big big city to access excellent health care.
Knoxville is a solid medium-sized city. But not a big city.
It all depends how serious and complex your condition is.
In terms of routine and general conditions, most hospitals should offer good levels of expertise, however in terms of rare or extremely complex conditions then regional or national specialist centres of excellence are much more likely to offer better treatment and outcomes.
This totally depends on two things. What your medical problem is, and how good your insurance coverage is for that condition. Some places are better than others (like the Mayo Clinics). I favor the Memorial hospitals because I've been a patient there as well as worked there, they always seemed to be a cut above the rest.
Yes, I do believe you will find specialist in major cities that have more knowledge than in your smaller cities.
I had an issue that took me to 13 doctors in Pennsylvania and I even went to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and they did not help.
Found the best Doctor in La at UCLA. He did Surgery on Me and my problem is solved.
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