Fast Food Medicine
Fast food medicine is one of the biggest not-talked about issues in the United States.
Before I define the issue, let me show you what I mean by the term “fast-food medicine”.
During my most recent visit to one of Kaiser Permanente’s clinic/medical offices, I found myself talking to a robot almost. I check-in, get my vitals checked and sit down in a room waiting for a doctor (I don’t like to say MY doctor for this specific doctor) to come. The doctor comes in and “air” shakes my hand (because of the virus) and does not make any eye contact with me. No type of emotion on the doctor’s face was present. Again, without looking at me, they proceed to start a conversation and discuss the reason for my visit. The physician asked me to move my neck around, which was in pain, and tell him what was hurting. He didn’t even look at me when I pointed out the part of the neck that was in pain. He gives a diagnosis (without looking at me) and asks is there anything else I may help you with. In all honesty, I don’t think he helped at all… so in my head, I responded, “No, there is nothing that YOU may help me with.” I was in and out of the clinic within 10 minutes.
As I’m walking out the door, questions begin running through my head: “does this person even care about the issue I presented them with” or “I wonder if this is how he treats other patients that may even have a worse problem than mine”. The doctor was staring at his computer the whole time with absolutely no regard or acknowledgment for human life (present in the room).
I know it may seem like I’m complaining about wanting more attention from the doctor. No. I’m here to simply point out a problem. There are people who work jobs centered around human that don’t care for humans.
Another tragic example of this problem is spoken about in Tig Notaro’s comedy album LIVE. She talks about the recent passing of her mother who tragically passed away from tripping and hitting her head. After the funeral, Notaro talks about how after the funeral, she checked her mother’s mailbox only to see a questionnaire on her stay at the hospital. HER MOTHER IS DEAD. Again, absolutely no regard or acknowledgment for human life (or the lack of life in this case).
Now diving into the questionnaire, it asks how the nurses treated her mother during her stay at the hospital when the mother had zero brain activity. Again, absolutely no regard or acknowledgment for human life. I think you could kind of see a recurring theme.
This term fast food medicine refers to the industry of medicine not being centered around patient care, but rather maximum profit. Hospitals and clinics are optimized to generate maximum output (see the most amount of patients in one day) allowing large corporations and doctors to make more money at the expense of quality and care in the treatment of patients.
This issue is so relevant because when healthcare professionals prioritize the needs of their patients over their own greed, the patient suffers. Healthcare professionals often prescribe more expensive medications even in the case where cheaper ones can get the job done. This is absolutely embarrassing because Around 23 percent of Americans face medication insecurity due to financial struggles in obtaining the next set of doses for the next month.
Moreover, healthcare professionals often hide these selfish actions behind the altruistic view that society has on people working in the healthcare system. Patients often don’t know any better than what the doctor is telling them, so they have no choice but to follow what their healthcare provider is telling them. Thus even when healthcare professionals are able to defend their actions of prescribing an expensive medication as a necessity for the patient and hide behind their fake altruistic motives. This occurrence allows fast-food medicine to continue. Due to the knowledge barrier of patients, fast-food medicine is a system that needs to be taken down from the inside by other healthcare professionals who are able to expose those who practice fast-food medicine.
Work Cited
One In Five Americans Can’t Afford Prescriptions With Gender Gap Getting Increasingly Worse. (2019, November 13). Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://khn.org/morning-breakout/one-in-five-americans-cant-afford-prescriptions-with-gender-gap-getting-increasingly-worse/
