Our Health and Education systems are failing us.
Allen has spent over 4 months getting a CPAP machine. (TRUE STORY)
He called his primary care for an appointment. He’s exhausted and not sleeping well.
(3 WEEKS LATER) He got an appointment 3 weeks later and his primary care wrote the referral.
(5 WEEKS LATER) He then finally got an appointment with the sleep specialist 5 weeks later.
He shows up for a 15-minute “consultation”.
(3 WEEKS LATER) He goes back 3 weeks later to pick up his sleep study machine. Also known as a HST (Home sleep test).
(1 DAY LATER) He returns the machine the next morning.
(5 WEEKS LATER) He gets an appointment to return for the results of the test 5 weeks later. (Another 15-minute appointment)
From the time he booked his first appointment to the time he got the results….16 weeks!
Oh but that’s not the rest of the story!
The sleep specialist promised he would fax the order for a CPAP machine and a copy of the sleep study to the store where Allen could be fitted and given his new machine.
No call ever came…
(1 WEEK LATER) After a week, Allen called the store.
They said they never received it.
Allen called the specialist’s office.
They said they sent it. (But they will send it again!)
Allen calls back to the store and tells them that the specialist sent it and now he wants to know where is PRIVATE HEALTH INFORMATION is.
They check again.
Oh, they do have it. They didn’t notice it the first time. Hmmm.
Now they PROMISE TO “process” it.
Then someone else will call Allen back and set up an appointment to get the CPAP machine.
(1 WEEK LATER) Allen gets an appointment for another week to be fitted for his machine.
RESULT: Total time: 18 WEEKS TO GET TREATMENT
Is Education Any Better? TRUE STORY
Let’s equate this to another service industry…EDUCATION…
Jonny is jumping all over the classroom like a rabbit.
His teacher can’t stand it anymore. It’s September and something has to be done.
The teacher puts in a request for Jonny to be evaluated.
Three weeks later Jonny gets an appointment with the school counselor.
The counselor sets up an ADHD test for Jonny 5 weeks out.
Jonny goes to a special lab for the test.
The test results come back 5 weeks later.
Three weeks after that Jonny and his parents get the results.
But wait…it’s the winter holidays.
Well, Jonny and his teacher will have to wait until January to get Jonny his special needs.
RESULT: Jonny and his teacher have wasted half a year of effective valuable learning.
But wait, this is more important than health and education…
What if your plumbing broke?
You set up an appointment to have someone fix your plumbing.
Wait 3 weeks for the plumber to come out.
Wait another 5 weeks for the parts to come in.
Wait another 3 weeks for the plumber to come back.
Wait another 5 weeks for the plumber to finish the job.
Wait at least another week before you can use your water.
RESULT: Your plumbing took 4 months to get fixed? You would not be happy.
It just seems ironic that in this day and age when you can drive through a fast food place in 20 minutes, text a friend in one minute and access thousands of songs, books, and news online in seconds, you have to wait 4 or more months for the most valuable assets in our society: health and education.
If it was our heating, cooling, plumbing, electric, cable, internet, or Amazon? We want it NOW!
What a crazy mixed-up system America has created.
Our most valuable assets the rest of the world looks to us for, health and education, have gone by the wayside. No wonder other countries are now outranking us in these two categories.