I think our overall medical health profession/providers/drugs, etc. need a serious revamping...98% of doctors don't seem to have the time to *care* anymore...and their sloppy in keeping track of what's going on. Their offices over-book appointments. It's basically a mess. One thing for sure...the MAKE A LOT OF $$$!! I could tell a lot of personal experiences, but I think we all know the scoop. I will tell you one. I took my Mom with me to our Dr. last fall for a "general check" and blood tests. The hospital lab mixed our blood up, because we both have the first name *Stella.* Her name is Stella M. Dunlap, mine is Stella J. Curtis. A lab tech. called me & said they didn't know which viles of blood were her's, and which were mine...~~ That we would have to have more blood drawn! DAMNED IGNORANT FOOLS! I went down to the hospital Risk Mgmt. office to report it. The very proper, prim, Manager, walked out & took me to the conference room. Her 1st words were: "Well, there seems to be a probluuum?" And I said: "Yes...you have lab technicians who can't read names correctly....so let's get straight to point. I'm not here to bat words around with you, nor do I play games about right or wrong, and I'm not here talking to you because I'm bored at home & have nothing better to do. You're lab technicians messed up & mixed-up my 85 yr. old Mom's blood & mine...and what are YOU going to do about it?" My Gold earrings were a lot bigger than hers... I ended-up walking across the street with her to the hospital lab, and after much ado, they just said the name *Stella* confused them... And I told them all in the lab: "If the name Stella confuses you, just think how confused you're going to be when I sue this hospital for hiring incompetent, air-head employees..." Jan C. -----Original Message----- From: J. Garland <zippywebgenie@hotmail.com> To: BLACKSHEEP-CHAT-L@rootsweb.com <BLACKSHEEP-CHAT-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Monday, May 06, 2002 12:00 AM Subject: [BSChat] medical news > > >Just heard on the news here in San Diego: studies show that you're more >likely to die from a medical mix up than from breast cancer, a car wreck or >AIDS. > >There's something wrong with this system. Probably a lot of things wrong. > >I know of one--but this is not necessarily a large part of the problem. >There's lots of ways mix ups can take place. > >My husband tells me that, while his first wife was still alive 8-10 years >ago, the nurses in N. CA were noticing that there were some relatively >unqualified nurses coming along and they looked into it, trying to find out >why these new nurses weren't up to snuff. Found out that the tests for >becoming a nurse had been made easier by the CA state licensing board, so >that nurses coming in from foreign countries would be able to pass them. At >that time, most other states had a reciprocal agreement with CA, if a nurse >was licensed here, the license was good in other states. I don't know if >that still exists--hopefully they tightened up their requirements, but they >may not be aware that CA did made licensing easier. > >I can understand the state wanting a constant supply of new nurses. It's >hard to keep nurses for more than 5 years, since nurses' wages top out in >that short a time. And then they start looking for something else. Who can >blame them? Good nurses are not paid enough, that's for sure. But, there's >got to be a way to sort out those who just aren't what they should be, >regardless of the reason. > >Jan G. > > >_________________________________________________________________ >MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: >http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx > > >==== BLACKSHEEP-CHAT Mailing List ==== >Unsubscribe from the list: >Mailto:Blacksheep-Chat-L-request@rootsweb.com?subject=unsubscribe&body=unsu bscribe > >============================== >To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >