Posted on 11/08/2017 4:10:23 PM PST by Olog-hai
German hospitals and doctors are potentially endangering their patients’ health by talking them into expensive treatments and unnecessary operations, according to a new study by the SOCIUM research center at Bremen University.
The study, based on around 60 interviews with doctors and hospital directors across the country, found that Germany was struggling to cope with the more complex illnesses that come with an aging population.
The researchers found that while the number of patients is increasing in the country, the length of hospital stays are shortening, as doctors have a financial incentive to admit more people to hospital, and staff are under economic pressure to then discharge them quickly.
“The system functions at the expense of the patients and medicine,” said study author Karl-Heinz Wehkamp. “We could have interviewed many more doctors. Most of them had a desire to talk about it and wake up the public and the politicians.” Wehkamp is a doctor himself, while co-author Heinz Naegler is an economics and law professor who managed hospitals in Berlin and Vienna. […]
Previous studies have also shown that German doctors often tend to carry out unnecessary x-rays for back pain, preoperative examinations like ECGs, or put in unnecessary heart or bladder catheters. …
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
Well, it’s kind of in their nature, isn’t it? ;)
(I’m 75% German, 25% Mutt - I’d have never made the cut!)
The Mengele Factor
The article is just an attack on private health care, I wouldnt necessarily believe any of it. Its just a push for further socialization.
Im curious what changed. When I lived there nearly 30 years ago my German friends complained that they couldnt get real health care because it was just a prescription distribution scam. It went something like, get your hand caught in a machine by accident and go to the doctor. This week was Motrin week so you just got a script for that because it probably wasnt really broken. Next week you go back. Youre in a great deal of pain but this week is vicodin week and your hand probably just needs more monitoring. The third week your hand is purple and swelled but since its Prozac week then your hand probably isnt broken, you just need counselling. Etc.
Follow the money is the saying but the privatization angle is a decoy so who is really making the money off of the change?
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