Visit to the doctor summed up

So I leave to go on vacation and we have a long debate about health care! Here's my two cents:

I think we're all in agreement that we want to take care of people who are sick. All of us are compassionate enough human beings that we want see people taken care of. The question is how best to do it. I think Tom's point is we need to focus on Health Care (and how to make sure the best health care is given to the most number of people) versus Health Insurance (which is one tool or one method that can be used to accomplish the above... but not necessarily the only way or even the best way). I tend to agree on that.

The waiting room experience is a symptom of how there are definitely opportunities to improve on the system. It may be the doctor who's not scheduling properly to maximize a patient's time. But a deeper cause may be the doctor needs to because his rates are dictated by the insurance companies. So universal insurance is probably not the best answer here either.

So what's the best way to get the best healthcare to the most number of people? Many of us have bought into economic theory (read the book Naked Economics), which says that if allow market forces to drive it, the most optimal way to use your resources will naturally happen. I'm in the camp that our health care system could use a little more optimizing in this fashion.

For those of you that have read Naked Economics or other books similar to it, they propose solutions where you try to align people's motivations and therefore get the most out of a scarce resource. I'd be interested to see what ideas we can come up with that would improve this system...

Visit to the doctor - And a question

So today I went to visit an ear, nose, and throat specialist to hopefully help me get rid of this perpetual stuffy nose I've had for a month. I was impressed that I was able to get in an appointment so fast, which was imperative because I'm leaving for Stupidfest Atlanta on Sunday. The lady who took my info said that I should arrive at 3:45 PM, and my appointment was for 4 PM. I said great, although one of my pet peeves is when doctors ask that patients be on time, but then make us wait while they're running late.

So I arrive at 3:42 PM (although I was shooting for 3:55 PM just to spite them). I'm at the desk filling out forms when a lady next to me checks in for another doctor. She asks how low he's behind. The guy behind the counter says, about an hour. She says, what really? He says that's pretty good, he's usually 2 hours behind. The lady asks if it's OK for her to leave and come back in 30 min. The guy says he can't guarantee anything and she may lose her place in line if they call her while she's gone. At this point I say pretty loudly, half joking, "So we hafta be here 15 minutes before our appointment, but the doctor can be an hour late?" Three or four of the patients in the waiting room laugh. The guy behind the desk seems to have a case of selective listening and didn't respond (when I first got there he greeted me, said to sign in... so I did, but then he went back to his work... I asked if I needed to fill out any forms, but he didn't say anything... then after like 10 seconds of silence he says, oh, I don't work for that doctor). Anyways I get to see the doctor at 4:45 PM, he pokes and prods me for 5 minutes and send me off with a stack of prescriptions and says if it doesn't get better come back and see him.

So here's the second part, which will lead to my question. I go off to Walgreens to cash in my stack of prescriptions. I hand them off to what looks like a college aged pharmacist. She tells me it'll be 15-20 minutes. OK, I've always wondered but now I hafta ask...

WHAT ARE THEY DOING BACK THERE THAT TAKES 15-20 MINUTES?????

Counting out pills? Grabbing stuff off the shelf? Why does that take 15-20 minutes? Maybe I need to look up Mrs. Sachs...

Not allowed to rip on marketing

I got a call from Alejandro the marketing guy at work a few weeks ago. He said to stop ripping on marketing people on my blog. I told him I'm an equal opportunity ripper, I rip on engineering just as much if not more (why does this feel like I'm in a Dilbert cartoon?). Let's see if he's still paying attention as I vent about this:

On our project team, we have two choices in terms of a package: A cheap boring one, and an expensive cool looking one. So how do you decide which one to use? Well, you figure out which one makes you the most money right? Apparently that's not how it works. Everyone's rejected the cheap boring one, saying "but it's so boring!" So if the marketing guy is reading this, tell me why we don't run tests to see how much more product we sell or how much more people are willing to pay for the cool looking expensive package versus the cheap one? Are we in business to make money or to make cool looking stuff? Maybe this is a better question for the Finance guy. If he's reading my blog I'd be stunned, bc I can't get a hold of him at work much less on a blog.

Anyways, by now you should be able to get Swash anywhere in the US on swashitout.com

Packer Tickets Update

As promised, here's the latest season ticket update:



I am number 45842, "gaining" 544 spots since this time last year. I do wonder what happens to those 544 people. I speculate that maybe these are the people who get taken off the list because they didn't keep their mailing addresses up to date. Anyways, if you extrapolate gaining 500 or so spots each year, that means 85 years or so before I get my tickets.

Phoenix airport badinage

So I'm sitting here in Phoenix airport, awaiting my connection to San Jose, where I will be attending anonymous (aka Dean's) wedding. I'm flying Southwest, so people are up and getting in line to get themselves a prime seat. I hold a "B" card, meaning I get to go in the second group. I held a "C" card on my initial flight here from Indy, but still got my preferred window seat. So instead of waiting in line, I'm gonna blog!!!

One thing I can't help thinking... computer chips get faster all the time, doubling every XX years (Morse's law?). How come my flight from Indy to Phoenix still takes 4 hours? I think it's always taken four hours since the invention of the Boeing jets. The one attempt at a faster plane, the Concord, is being taken out of service. So why can't I get from Cinci to San Jose in less than half day? Why can't I get there in 1-2 hours? Aren't we smart enough to figure out a way to do that?

As much as flying has improved, it's still a necessary evil. It's kinda neat to see all the food options that the airports have to offer. But I still prefer a non-stop flight less than hour, without all the security and stuff. And when they say "We hope you enjoyed your flight" I always chuckle because I don't think anyone really enjoys a flight.

I also found out that the Packers play the Bears on national TV on Sunday. I fly out of San Jose at 1:35 PM local time and don't arrive Indy until 11:00. Which means I get back to Cinci around 1 AM. So I wanted to see if I can take an earlier flight (I was concerned about a potential long night, so I didn't want to wake up at the butt crack of the dawn in Sunday to go home... but now there's a football game!!!). Of course, that's like a million dollars to do.

So if I had a lot of money, I would:

1. Offer up a prize for someone that could get me from Cincinnati to California in 2 hours at a sustainable, economic price

2. On this said airline, I would allow everyone to go on whatever earlier or later flight they wanted to, if we had seats open. Such a simple concept!