Gee really? I had no fucking klew! You mean to say we are still living under capitialism!?!
FYI, I've spent more fucking time in hospitals over that two years to be rather familliar with the way they work. One thing I have learned: don't go anywhere near for profit hospitals. Columbia HCA, in particular.
Joseph Noonan ----------------------
Sorry, Joe. I posted that just before going off to work for eight stinking hours worth. But you said something about doubting that fed dollars go to private agencies. Wherever they go, damned few show up on the street where they belong.
I am going to use this as an excuse to really go on a rant, so none of the following is directed at you or anything you posted. It is about the healthcare industry in general. This will be Part I. Part II and Part III will follow.
Here are some highlights from my day.
Around eleven this morning, the emergency services van pulls up with yet another new driver who doesn't know squat and isn't paid enough to learn. He wants me to come out and take a look at this guy's chair. I go out and take one look and recognize the scene--Bernard B, homeless lives on the street, youngish, black, gunshot, a para and amputee, sores, no blatter or bowel care, no attendant, wants his broken frame replaced and his cushion fixed. I walk away in the middle of his excuses for no phone, no address, no Medi-cal id card, no money, nothing--enumerated with attitude, (gee, I wonder why--but then who needs it). I go inside the office and haul the in-take guy out to listen to Bernard's rant, and go back to work on some other chair.
Around lunch they've sorted it out and Bernard gets a loaner chair and cushion, we get his trash chair covered in old food, urine, feces, and that smell that comes with gangrene.
Tomorrow, I'll put on double latex gloves, strip the chair, get the frame welded (QII, aluminum), clean the rest of it up, fix the Roho and call Berkeley city emergency services so I get the same driver back because he will know where this guy is living. The city driver will have to deliver the chair to Bernard on the street. Hopefully emergency services will pick up the loaner equipment and then I'll go get the equipment from them. This shit goes on everyday, year in year out.
Now Bradley wants to mail vouchers to Bernard? And Clinton has yet another plan. Here's a nickel kid, buy a life. Bernard is already dead. I have seen dozens of these guys and they only last about two to three years on the street.
Later this afternoon, a fire department big rig pulls up and two Oakland firemen push another guy in the door. They were called because the broken power chair was stalling traffic on Hollis St. and Oakland doesn't have emergency disabled services. The firemen pushed this guy six or seven blocks while their rig followed them. They were breathless by the time they got to the shop. We laughed and joked and they left feeling good. I was glad they didn't see me turn the emergency cut-off toggle switch on--which was the only problem with the chair.
Best technical accomplishment of my day was finding an obscure wire inside a joystick operated recliner circuit. The wire was broken inside the joystick assembly, inside the vinyl insulation. It took more than hour to find it.
Chuck Grimes