Doctors Are Bad for Your Health

mikehudack:

jayparkinsonmd:

You may want to think twice before your next visit to the doctor’s office. According to Dr. Barbara Starfield’s now-famous study (in JAMA), iatrogenic deaths (those resulting from treatment by physicians or surgeons) are the third leading cause of mortality in the United States, resulting in the loss of 225,000 lives per year. Of that total, nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections kill 80,000, physician errors claim 27,000, and unnecessary surgery results in 12,000 deaths.

But iatrogenic errors aren’t the only reason people should avoid hospitals, says physician and health care administrator Archelle Georgiou. She tells Big Think that relying on doctors may actually shorten your lifespan. Georgiou bases this idea on her studies of the earth’s so-called “blue zones,” isolated communities around the world whose inhabitants live longer and healthier lives than the greater populace.

In the Greek blue zone, the island of Ikaria, inhabitants are more than 4 times more likely to live to age 90 than Americans are—yet there is virtually no health care infrastructure. Georgiou tells us: “There are no hospitals or major surgery capabilities…. People needing emergency care are transported by helicopter to Samos (a neighboring island), and all elective surgery is done in Athens.”

How do we define a good doctor or a good hospital? A good hospital is one that is able to clear more money than it spends. It has nothing to do with how many patients leave the hospital healthier than when they entered. It does have to do with the number of procedures and drugs that can be billed to medical insurance providers.

How do we define a good doctor? A good doctor books revenue by performing expensive surgeries, prolonging life at the expense of quality of life, and is under pressure to medicate, medicate, medicate. Doctors are good people; hospitals are wonderful institutions, but by conflating quality with revenue we emphasize medical practices that have nothing to do with health.

This was posted 1 year ago. It has 33 notes.
  1. oochay reblogged this from jayparkinsonmd
  2. brokendownoldqueen reblogged this from jayparkinsonmd and added:
    Lol, I feel like I would be more convinced of something like this if they actually explained some
  3. flirtingwithsherlockholmes reblogged this from jayparkinsonmd
  4. andres reblogged this from mikehudack and added:
    How do we define a good doctor or a good hospital? A good hospital is one that is able to clear more money than it...
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  6. seanbonner reblogged this from mikehudack and added:
    I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve been to a doctor since I turned 16 and didn’t have to listen...
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