Healthscare: Confessions of a Hospital Spin Doctor

By Clay DeStefano

Clay DeStefano has spent thirty years working in a health care industry, and hes come to an unexpected conclusion: Medical care should be sought only as a last resort and even then, with extreme caution.

Unfortunately, Americans today seem addicted to health care and all its spinoff industries, and like our other addictions, its killing us.

It almost killed the authors wife: When she became sick, doctors nearly unnecessarily removed her gall bladder before putting her on an assortment of drugs with never-ending side effects. When she stopped taking all the prescriptions, she finally started to get better.

As a spin doctor specializing in hospital public relations, the author takes a critical look at the health care system, tackling everything from the Affordable Care Act to Ebola. In the process, he exposes a bloated system thats often ill-prepared and ill-equipped to solve big problems.

Despite the hype and political talking pints, hundreds of thousands of people continue to needlessly die at the hands of their health care providers each year. Find out how to avoid being a statistic with the insights in HealthScare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Nov 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781480824614

Clay DeStefano

Clay DeStefano is a writer, artist and change agent. Over three decades he helped build goodwill and the bottom line for three of the nation’s largest health care corporations. He and his wife live in San Marcos, Texas.

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Copyright © 2015 Clay E. DeStefano.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Archway Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-1940-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2461-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015918946

Archway Publishing rev. date: 11/18/2015

CONTENTS

Part 1: The Other Side of the Fence

Chapter 1 The Great and Powerful Oz

Chapter 2 Eyes Wide Shut

Part 2: The Business of Health Care

Chapter 3 Big Stuff

Chapter 4 Into the Fire

Chapter 5 The Boys Club

Chapter 6 It’s a Dirty Business

Chapter 7 The Thin White Line

Chapter 8 I’m Outta Here

Part 3: In the Name of the Father

Chapter 9 Holy Work

Chapter 10 God’s Soldiers

Chapter 11 Sister Act

Chapter 12 Oh the Humanity

Chapter 13 Shark’s Tale

Chapter 14 Move Along, Little Doggie

Chapter 15 My God’s Better Than Yours

Part 4: Takeaways

Chapter 16 A Fond Farewell

Chapter 17 We Don’t Speak Your Language

Chapter 18 Dancing with the Devil

Chapter 19 Healthy U

Chapter 20 The Time Is Now

Dedication:

To Anne, Mom and Dad—may your personal stories, and those of others I have shared here, help to inspire all who read them accordingly.

PART 1:

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE

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CHAPTER 1

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ

M y wife, like my father and many other Americans, is a health care junkie . She believes in doctors, pills, shots, implements—even surgical intervention—for everything . It’s been a running debate between us for our entire thirty-plus-year marriage.

Two winters ago she began experiencing strange pain in her stomach, followed by vomiting and diarrhea. The flu-like symptoms continued off and on for a few weeks.

By spring, they were back and worse. This time whenever she changed position—from lying flat to sitting up, standing from sitting, or going up or down stairs—she’d be hit with excruciating pain, followed by vomiting and diarrhea.

Despite my hesitation, she insisted that I go out of town to attend a corporate training seminar. While I was away, her condition worsened, and a friend took her to the emergency room of the hospital where I worked. She was treated for pain, given fluids, and run through some additional tests. Her case was a bit of a mystery because she was displaying a variety of symptoms but no definitive diagnosis could be given. She was discharged and referred to a gastroenterologist for follow-up.

When she couldn’t get in to see any of the specialists on our medical staff quickly enough, she and her friend decided to go to the hospital in the next town. By the time I returned from my trip, my wife was scheduled for a study to check out her gallbladder function. She underwent the test, and it showed that her gallbladder wasn’t functioning properly.

After reviewing the test results, the gastroenterologist informed me that her gallbladder needed to come out and he could fit her into his surgical schedule the next day in Austin. My wife immediately said she wanted it taken out. I explained to the doctor that I was employed by a different hospital and asked if he could perform the procedure there. He told me he didn’t practice there, didn’t know anyone who did, and he promptly hung up on me.

Apparently once he realized he wasn’t going to make any more money off of us, he was done. No referral, no hand off, just a click on the other end of the phone.

I called one of the surgeons on our medical staff that I admired and trusted and asked if he would be willing to give us a second opinion. He graciously agreed to see us that same afternoon. He asked several questions and reviewed her records and the same study the gastroenterologist had. He told us that even though her gallbladder function wasn’t normal, she didn’t have any of the other classic symptoms to suggest it needed to come out.

Amazingly enough, this surgeon was not recommending surgery.

When I explained that the condition had been going on for nearly thirty days nonstop and my wife had lost almost thirty pounds in that time, he made a phone call to one of the gastroenterologists on our medical staff, who also graciously agreed to see us that same day. While this gastroenterologist also could find no immediate medical reason for the symptoms, it was clear that her health was precarious, so he admitted her for failure to thrive.

A few hours later, she was in a bed in our hospital scheduled for more intensive testing. In addition, she was on IV fluids, pain control, and a liquid diet. The immediacy of the attention certainly made her feel better emotionally, and the IV and pain meds temporarily masked her physical symptoms.

After a few days, the best diagnosis seemed to be vasculitis NOS (not otherwise specified). She was discharged and referred to a rheumatologist for further testing and treatment.

We were told that vasculitis was an inflammatory disease that comes in different forms. In her case it seemed to be inflaming the veins and arteries that fed her digestive system.

The rheumatologist’s treatment consisted of a combination of steroids and other anti-inflammatory drugs. The steroids worked remarkably well; however, due to numerous side effects, it was not recommended that she stay on them for an extended period of time. For a while she responded to the cycled up,