Doctors and Plumbers ..Part II by Jamil Shawwa

The story gets complicated, that is the relation between the treating doctor and the patient, when the sickness is not related to one area in the body and it needs different departments and doctors to be involved. So, now you have few things going on, and each doctor has an interpretation from the angle of his or her field only. Here is the problem, you get an exam that would clear that very narrow area from anything bad and then you find out the next-door neighbor, and in this case, another adjacent organ is not well. The question is why that doctor could not see the big picture or even the full picture. The questions keep going, is it possible that they saw it but because it is not their specialty they either ignore or refer to someone else. Do doctors have the time with all this volume to give each patient the time they deserve. I really do not think so. Once there is a picture or there is clarity, you start looking for that doctor, if you find one, which can connect the dots together and provide an analysis to what needs to be done. I do not think it happens efficiently. The other day a doctor came to the patient and asked her if she knew what the next step would be and what kind of an examination is next. I am astonished to say the least. A treating doctor would ask the patient such a stupid question. Then after that or before that you have another layer of doctors who somehow related to that sickness coming and asking the same questions that other doctors asked. The patient is in dilemma here, to keep answering or show an attitude. Either way is painful. The answer I have is that those badly trained medical providers are going based on what the management company of the hospitals are asking them to do, a routine that does not make sense, that rob the profession from it’s glorious mission of saving lives or at least trying to save lives. So the patient typically with an interdepartmental sickness would be in a limbo of what is the next step, the doctors, each talking on his own, from his angle and then maybe at some point coordinate. Here is what it should be done from a management point of view. Once an example of that magnitude- the condition- arises, the hospital or someone or group should assign a point of contact, hub, a doctor of course, that would coordinate all activities and all information would be channeled through him or her and then to the patient. One voice for the many. It can be done, and hospitals should not talk budget too much otherwise they need to get out of this profession of saving lives and get into a similar profession or position and save toilets and pipes, and be plumbers.

Doctors and Plumbers...by Jamil Shawwa

Professions intertwine in a very interesting way when you stop, or you do not, but look or notice the similarities. Probably all human professions from the Garbage collector or the sewage worker, that is if we agree that these professions are maybe the lowest or at the bottom of the rank, to the head of state, president, queen, king, emperor, or as in the case of *Kim Jung IL, the most prominent and talented leader, whom has the title of the supreme leader, have something to do with essential human functions**. I am now and for the purpose of this article have for some time intrigued by the unbelievable and uncanny similarities between plumbers and Medical Doctors. They both deal with life function that without it no human can live or at least, cannot live for long. Plumbers maintain the functionality of the toilets, bidets, faucets, water pipes, gas pipes and then making sure that these pipes function for it's or in the direction of it's ultimate purpose. I mean I do not have to be graphic here, but you know, the restroom and the bathroom routine, I mean what if it's clogged, you bring the plumber, and this plumber would use many tools to ensure the smooth flow of the business in the toilets or the bathtub where it should ultimately reside; which is the sewage and from there we have another human function and another story. Doctors are the same, the have a body that is already there, and their job, if they do it right, is to ensure that all these pipes and all these organs function normally. Their job, the doctors or the talented ones at least, is to detect and prevent. Detect signs of certain things that might come your way and prevent those things or other expected things from developing into potential malicious objects, of course as much as they can do, sometimes no one can do anything. The magic word here I think is try, Doctors these days, generally speaking, do not try. Humans to them are numbers, objects, annoyance that they have to deal with. Technology have advanced so far that some doctors put their patients on a computer that will run a cycle of their symptoms and then prescribe the suitable medicine from the point view of the software, and at the end, the doctor, in this case, actually, the Jackass, would come, put a smile on his or her face and shake the hands and wish you well. See, doctors have become like greeters in Malls or shopping centers, their job is to greet you at the entrance and then wish you well when you leave. In between, you really deal with scores of nurses, lab technicians, and more nurses. Plumbers in a way are the same, except that they do the job themselves, they usually come to your home when a pipe is broken, a toilet is clogged, and similar things. The good ones, fix, detect possible signs of future or down the road problems and plan a prevention roadmap. See what I just wrote, it could be a mantra for anything in life. Again, fix, detect and prevent. The majority of the plumbers and the medical doctors are no longer do the things, I just mentioned. They fix, temporarily until it breaks again, and then they fix again and the cycle continues. Countries and among them the richest as the United States spend billions every year either in government funds or charities on research to prevent diseases, to fight epidemics, in advertisement on how do this and that but they do not invest, or invest enough in the most important aspect of this process or prevention in my opinion; the medical doctor, the student, the graduate, the resident. Universities- where it all should develop- are even worse; I have met many so-called resident doctors that I had to tell them what to do, what to check, what to detect, how to treat each human as a unique person that he or she is and not just a case. It is a shame the state of medicine not only here in the United States but all over the world. Go to the Middle East, and your heart will be broken. Invest in the human being and your investment will quadruple, and will multiply in a magical way, one investment, could save at least one life. To me this is the ultimate investment.


*Read: The Iraqi Donkeys Association: http://arabamericanwire.blogspot.com/2010/07/iraqi-donkey-associationby-jamil-shawwa.html
**Read: Garbage: http://arabamericanwire.blogspot.com/2010/03/concepts-and-cultures-part-ii-garbage.html