The Hospital of the Future
I need to have a digital camera with me for moments like this...
High atop a hill in San Marcos, California, the Palomar Pomerado Hospital is being built. Still in the early construction stages, the project is, to use Jerry Seinfeld's words, nothing more than a cross-beam girder system. But what will it be down the road? A banner at the site proclaims: The Hospital of the Future.
Hallelujah. At a time when no one agrees on what the entire healthcare system should look like, somehow we know what the hospital of the future looks like, or at least where it will be.
To me, though, a hospital is symbolic of the healthcare system. Meaning, it could be stocked with the coolest, most innovative, advanced, precise technology in the world; staffed with the most service-minded, trustworthy, compassionate and competent medical experts in the world; and offer the cleanest bathrooms anywhere in North San Diego County.
And none of that would matter if it still takes me 45 minutes to complete all my paperwork before getting any medical attention when the hospital isn't even busy.Or if my insurance claim is denied, or only 50% paid when I thought it would be 80% paid.
My insurance is actually fine. I'm happy with it. I'm worried that my premiums will go up, actually, if there's a public option, as my fellow employees may choose to opt for that rather than our company-provided program, and this is multipled across countless other businesses, making it more difficult for my insurer to cover the costs of medical care for the rest of us.
What I'm saying is, though our system isn't working and we don't really know what it's going to look like in 180 days, it's ironic to see a hospital that's not even built yet hailing itself as the hospital of the future. It will be a hospital IN the future, I guess we all know that. But THE Hospital OF the Future, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
