Stable But Stranded: Why Successful Treatment in a Failed System Isn’t Enough
The following essay is by Dhruv Khullar, a fourth year medical student at the Yale School of Medicine and a contestant in the 2012 Costs of Care Essay Contest. By the time I met her, Ms. Jacob had been in the hospital for 202 days, 15 hours, and 38 minutes. 39 minutes. 40 minutes. Starting work on a floor that prided itself on delivering comprehensive, efficient care, I studied the computer monitor describing patient lengths of stay, wondering why this woman had been here 25 times longer than the average patient – and counting. Was she sicker? Had she developed a particularly rare,...
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The following essay is by Jason Ryan, MD- a physician from Connecticut and a contestant in the 2012 Costs of Care Essay Contest. When I first lay eyes on Marilyn, I don’t think she will survive another week. Eighty-nine years old with short, curly gray hair, she sits in a wheelchair in the examination room. According to the nursing sheet, she weighs one-hundred and nine pounds. She wears a bulky white sweater over a gray dress that seems too big for her tiny body. Her ankles dangle below her dress, swollen due to worsening heart failure. Even though I can tell she is depressed, she...
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