I'm a Health care professional for people who dint know it , for the rest of u it doesn't really matter. I thought of this blog in the morning. After waking up having my cup of tea. Its a chapter out of my life nothing that incidental , nothing that astonishing just something which happened at work.
The Health care industry in India is an exploding industry , with a few players fighting it out to conquer it all. They seize every opportunity to expand to add facilities, and finally the ultimate goal to make the money they pump in and a bit more. Now Health care till a few years ago was not a very lucrative business, with very large break even periods, the money u pumped in took ages to come back and when it did probably interests could have gotten you that. But then Humans decided they wanted to do something exciting so they started smoking, Sat on computers rather than meeting friends and well drank lots of Booze and then of course as their life's got buisy so they couldn't cook they started eating hamburgers , pizzas basic fast food, got fat and started having Heart attacks like there was no tomorrow. And the Business turned profitable, there were other lifestyle diseases , there was Joint Replacements there were accidents and all of this led to money.
So here i sit out of a Desk in a Hospital and see it all and how i see it i speak it. The whole game is about numbers of employees, cases, revenues and expenses. Now Health care is a field which is highly humanised, i mean agreed there is a lot of technology mixed with the Humans , but by the end of it all it is Humanised , that's the side people most see , clinicians talking to their patients, nurses talking to their patients, taking care of them , every part of it is about care atleast that's what i think. And this is an integral part of it, with alot of money spent on training , on Customer relation Management, and all of that . But then by the end of it have u ever thought it all requires money and the money comes from the common customer.
So let us now see the other side of tit the slightly darker side. When u work on the different side of the spectrum u talk only money , cases , revenue. For example if a person i know , whom i have smoked with come to the hospital complaining of chest pain ( This is just an acquaintance). I take his ECG and show him to the cardiologist , the cardiologist says hes having a heart attack. First thought man is he gonna die not in my hospital please. Second thought what can be done , OK Primary angioplasty with a normal stent as hes poor equates to 100,000 Rs. Ahh revenue earned and then life saved .
Now We take a decision he requires it , we ask him he agrees , the doctors scared him enough and i guess unknowingly i have been a part of it too. man u alright don't worry but u could have died you know. So we wait for the family , till that time i talk to the boss arrange for discounts , right now I'm not even sure the patient will be admitted and here i am thinking of discounts for him. OK i see the procedure not cos i know the patient but rather to make sure the doc doesn't use a very expensive Stent ( The patient is poor u see) and if he cant pay it would be embarrassing and the company will loose money. The patient is fine i see him off in the ICCU shit today GMATs gone down the drain . OK but hes safe. Hes grateful, we haven't taken a single penny till now , hell deposit it tomorrow , no tensions, if he doesn't deposit , well hard luck he will have too. My jobs done lets have a beer.
While I'm leaving he thanks me, and i see that he really means it, hes on the verge of tears and well he almost makes his son, probably 4 years younger than me, touch my feet. But then at that very moment i hate myself the most. Not cos i conned him , because i didn't , he could have waited till tomorrow had another heart attack and died. Not for the care provided cos it was efficient , expertise , not for the money involved cos actually ill be giving him a genuine discount, but cos at all these moments i never thought we were talking about a life , for me it was always revenue.
So be careful my friends sometimes Business comes so much in the forefront that we forget the very component that makes us Human. Compassion. I did all that was required i gave reassurance and it was convincing , but never did i realise that i had been part of saving a life. This is what has happened over the past 2 1/2 years. I have buried a few , i had cried for a few and at other times i haven't even realised , now if someone starts crying in the hospitals , i don't think a deaths happened i just think man shut up you willscare all the other people away.
Well I know this probably would be forgotten tomorrow but atleast at the moment i pledge that somewhere in the middle of this all, i will find my soul .
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