THE PAUL JACOBS SHOW  

The long term health care system is and has been in a major state of decline and disrepair almost since its beginning. You would think that with all of our advances in health care technology that the overall quality of direct care would be improving but that is simply not the case. All the high tech gadgetry in the world cannot and will not ever replace the need for basic bedside direct patient care. I'm talking about the healthcare practitioners that call themselves nurse aides, home health aides, and even companion sitters. This group would also and most importantly include family members who have decided to care for loved ones at home and who do not use the services of professional home healthcare aides sent out from health care agencies.

We live in a nation that has neglected its healthcare system in a way that is criminal in my opinion. In most cases patients are shuffled in and out of the hospital like cattle going through a large revolving door. Get um in and get um out as quick as possible except for the rich and famous and heavily insured. County hospitals on the other hand have waiting rooms filled to the brim with the poor, uninsured, lost, lonely, and suffering people of our communities waiting for hours in most cases to see a doctor who they will probably never see again. Emergency rooms are crammed with people who do not have family doctors, cannot afford care, and in many cases receive poor or inadequate treatment.

Bedside manner has gone to hell in a handbasket. Doctors and nurses are in to damn big of a hurry to go nowhere. And the overall system is falling apart at the seams. Especially the long term care end of it.

Nurse aides and home health aides are severely underpaid, overworked, underinsured or not insured at all. They have no identifiable career ladder to climb and their training is not keeping pace with the current technologies and patient needs. This lack of training at the basic level is costing the government and the tax payer billions of dollars.

I have worked as a home health aide and nurse aide for years. I am a former EMT/Paramedic and have been a critical health care outreach coordinator and health care patient advocate for over thirty five years. I have seen it all, done it all, and heard it all.

The healthcare system in this country sucks especially for the poor and needy. The only way you can be assured of any kind of high quality, immediate, in your face, top notch care is if you are very, very sick and you are headed to the emergency room code three via ambulance. And in some cases you still may have reason to be afraid.

Everything and everyone is moving way to fast in this system. The faster the system moves the more mistakes can be made. It is getting worse every day. It is all about the money.

We have a major shortage of really good doctors. We have a critical nursing shortage. Our nursing schools are turning out nurses that are not completely prepared for the real world of medicine and basic level nursing is a joke especially at nursing homes where the employee turn over rate is 100% or more per year. And the nurse to patient ratio is as high as 25 to 1 - that is 25 patients to 1 nurse aide.

It is only going to get worse. So buckle your bootstraps and hang on.