We Recruit For Attitude And Train For

You May Not Control Life's Circumstances, But Getting To Be The Author Of Your Life Means Getting To Control What You Do With Them.

My Own Son Has A Congenital Heart Condition, Where His Life Was Saved By A Cardiac Surgeon Stepping In At 11 Days Of Life To Save His Life. But He Is Now 21 Years Old Because Of Constant Monitoring And Working With Him With A Primary Care Physician. That's The Only Reason Now That He's Getting To Live A Long And Healthy Life. That's What We're Not Rewarding. They Don't Have The Kind Of Resources And Commitment That We Are Giving To People Like Me. I Have Millions Of Dollars Of Equipment Available To Me When I Go To Work Every Day In An Operating Room.

I Talked To Over Two Hundred Patients And Family Members About Their Experiences With Aging, Serious Illnesses, And The Big Unfixables. But I Also Spoke With Scores Of Physicians, And Especially Geriatricians, Palliative Care Doctors, Hospice Nurses, And Nursing Home Workers. The Biggest Thing I Found Was That When These Clinicians Were At Their Best, They Were Recognizing That People Had Priorities Besides Merely Living Longer. The Most Important And Reliable Way That We Can Understand What People's Priorities Are, Besides Just Living Longer, Is To Simply Ask. And We Don't Ask.

My Biggest Fear, That 27 Percent Of Americans Under 65 Have An Existing Health Condition That, Without The Protections Of The Affordable Care Act, Would Mean They Would - Could Be Automatically Excluded From Insurance Coverage. Before The Aca, They Wouldn't Have Been Able To Get Insurance Coverage On The Individual Market, You Know, If You're A Freelancer Or If You Had A Small Business Or The Like.

In One Study, Old People Assigned To A Geriatrics Team Stayed Independent For Far Longer, And Were Admitted To The Hospital Less.