Shot or Stabbed? Call An Uber, Not an EMT…

You made a mistake. You let the whisky get the best of you. You stated your opinion on a whole manner of “impolite” things to talk about in public. Some of them were politically incorrect. You are guilty of wrongthink. And, as your punishment, some deranged hildebeest just stabbed you outside your favorite drinking hole.

If you’re in California or Canada, said stabber has already called the cops on you for not using Zer’s proper pronouns.

But that’s no matter. You have only one thing on your mind right now — getting medical attention.

The whisky has made your blood thinner than liquid silk, you need to think quick or you’ll bleed out like a stuck pig.

Your first instinct is to call 911.

Your other option? Uber.

You flick the app open and call the damn Uber. He’s only two minutes away, after all. His name is Dave. Dave’s not happy to see you when he pulls up, but he takes you to the ER anyway.

Wait. What?! Are you nuts?!

Maybe not.

Private vs. Public

Some would call you crazy. And the Uber driver certainly isn’t going to appreciate it.

But, according to a study conducted by Johns Hopkins University, you made the right choice.

Published in JAMA Surgery, the study found…

Victims of gunshots and stabbings are 62% less likely to die when transported privately.

“The study,” Lisa Rabasca Roepe writes on the OZY blog, “examined data, collected by the American College of Surgeons’ National Trauma Data Bank, from 103,029 patients with a gunshot or stab wound. It found an overall 2.2 percent mortality rate for patients transported via private vehicle — taxi, ride-sharing program, a friend’s car — compared with 11.6 percent for ground emergency medical services and ambulance.”

Paramedics are beholden to specific protocols that cost precious time. And when someone is rapidly losing blood, time is everything.

For example, in some places, EMS providers are forced to give patients IV fluids before they roll. Although a lifesaver in some situations, this isn’t one. And it could be the difference between life and death for someone bleeding everywhere.

It’s not a criticism of the EMTs, it’s simply a reflection of the state of the healthcare industry in general — unable to adapt to the complexities of what the situation demands, kowtowing to the generalized bureaucracy.

This loss of autonomy, to be sure, costs lives and demoralizes the practitioners.

The patients are dehumanized. They become burdens — stacks of paperwork and a series of robotic, nonsensical movements.

And then there are the ghastly monetary incentives, as outlined by one Reddit user, WidmerBeer:

“A few years back my Grandfather went in for hearing aid batteries at the doctor’s office (He was mid 90s with significant hearing loss). The doctor ran some quick tests and suggested upgrading his hearing aids to some new ones that were much better.

“So naturally my Grandfather asked him about how much they’d cost, and the doctor replied that they would be about $10,000. My Grandfather looked up at him and said, ‘There’s not a damn thing you can say worth Ten Thousand Dollars.’

“We took the batteries and left.

“Another time the local old persons rehab/gym didn’t like my Grandfather very much after he told them he wouldn’t allow Medicare to pay for his exercise/rehab, and instead he’d pay out of pocket (cash) for it. Membership out of pocket was about $120 for three months. If he got medicare to cover it the bill on medicare would have been racked up in the thousands. So once again, the place didn’t get the huge medicare payout making their pockets fat.

“There’s so much fat to trim when it comes to government costs but unfortunately we can’t do that without people screaming that fiscal conservatives are trying to kill people because they don’t want taxpayers footing the bill on 100x markups in the healthcare industry for exercise memberships and hearing aids.”

Direct Primary Care — A Solution?

This is precisely why, disgusted by the current healthcare status quo, some doctors are opting out and offering a subscription-based service.

“This new approach,” Mark McDaniel, Producer for Reason TV writes, “is called “direct primary care,” but it’s essentially a throwback to an era before insurance companies were responsible for covering routine services like ear infections or strep cultures.”

Direct primary removes the interference of third parties — allowing for a very different relationship between doctor and patient.

“Most direct primary care practices,” says McDaniel, “charge a monthly subscription fee. It allows them to offer other services, like answering patient phone calls, text messages, or even having appointments over Skype—services that our insurance-dominated system doesn’t allow for.

“Need an x-ray? That’s $25 to $40, along with a monthly subscription fee that runs from $35 for minors to $130 for a family of four.”

Dr. Ryan Neuhofel, a direct primary care physician based in Kansas, has transparent pricing on his website. What you see is what you pay.

“We’re able to be creative in meeting their needs,” Neuhofel told Reason. “[We are] able to give them transparency in pricing, and redesign the entire health care experience around what patients really need.”

Healthcare that’s focused on the patient’s needs and not some bureaucrat’s whims?

Imagine that.

Until tomorrow,

Chris Campbell
Managing editor, Laissez Faire Today

The post Shot or Stabbed? Call An Uber, Not an EMT… appeared first on Laissez Faire.