Completed Bachelors in EMS Business Management in 2011 Completed MBA-Healthcare Management 2013 Returning soon to blogging.

What are they Thinking???

We have been watching our political system trying to tackle a host of issues, all of which are truly important and do indeed need to be addressed. Chief among them is the health care system. While I strongly support the idea that the system is broken and in need of being revamped at the very least, the numbers just don’t add up with the current model being manipulated in the house and senate.


Being a working part of the health care system for over 25 years I find it appalling that our representatives believe that they can fix it. They are entirely wrong. In support of this thought process I offer the following facts.

1. Our political system has constantly failed to repair the Medicare and Medicaid systems or even make a slight improvement.

2. Our veterans continue to be poorly cared for post service if they get any care at all.

3. It has historically been proven that the government in general is unable to fix even the simplest of problems.

Private sector efforts have historically been much better able to turn things around whether it is concerning manufacturing industries, finance, or I suspect, even health care.

It has been my experience in life that if you wish to fix any problem regardless of the issues or focus, one must first complete a thorough assessment. Such has not been demonstrated for the health care industry. While most everyone agrees that the health care system is in fact broken, I contend that you cannot get where you want to go if you do not know where you are starting from. Having this thought in mind, it is my observation that beyond a painfully superficial review, those in decision making positions have failed to clearly identify the issues and would be hard pressed to identify with certainty the good, the bad or the indifferent. Secondly, the efforts that have been forced through the highest levels of government have been largely completed without the benefit of knowing the contents of the entire package. The additional insult comes when one recognizes that much of the content of the bills passed to remedy the situation have a myriad of unrelated “add-on” features that only serve to further exacerbate our fiscal problems.



Good managers and leaders recognize that a focused approach affords much smoother navigation to the intended goal than does the “shotgun approach”. It is also true that such an endeavor requires less energy. Additionally any good manager recognizes that they have strengths and weaknesses. Accordingly they choose others who excel in the area of focus as opposed to plowing ahead making decisions and taking actions that affect others without really knowing what the outcome is likely to be. Such is the case with most of our politicians. As a rule, none of them will be susceptible to living with the end result of the efforts to fix our ailing health care system.

A significant portion of our politicians are lawyers and very few have any working knowledge of healthcare in general never mind the intricacies associated with its successful delivery. It is equally true that few if any of them understand the cost associated with any part of the delivery of care to those who need it.

It has been repeatedly stated that there is tremendous waste throughout the health care system, in some cases resulting from the ordering of unnecessary tests. This too is true and largely the result of our litigious society. Hospitals and physicians frequently order tests largely to help assure that they are not sued because they may have missed something instead of ordering that which is reasonable and follows the expected clinical path.

Getting back on track, we must take note of the fact that if we continue on the current path in just the health care alone, we are creating fiscal complications for our children and our country too and in the end will fail to achieve the intended result.

Our self serving politicians need to be held accountable. We must ensure that their choices if not actions are the result of accurate global assessment coupled with realistic prognosis that demonstrates sound fiscal responsibility not only to ourselves but to those who will follow after us, namely our children and their children.



We struggle each day to make sure that we meet the obligations that are ours individually, the consequence of which is that we often if not chronically miss what is going on at the global level in spite of the fact that those issues too affect us all.

We should all endeavor to be more cognizant of the bigger picture and make sound efforts to assure that those in decision making positions are in fact making good decisions. If in any case this fails to be true then we should collectively assure that we replace those decision makers with others that will. We all know that too many say one thing and do something quite different, usually best serving their own interests instead of ours as the people who voted them into those positions in the first place.

One final thought…. Consider too that career politicians chronically fail to understand (in the first person) the realities of life for all of us out here in the real world. The best way to prevent that is to replace career politicians with new blood from those among us in the regular population that have a firm grip on the realities that result from the decisions made in the house and senate of our nation never mind the more local governments.

Right of Center

Imagine that! A conservative "Biker". I am neither radical nor fanatical but as a rule believe that those that are should be summarily dismissed without recourse. I have been a Critical Care Flight Paramedic for 13 years and a Ground Paramedic for over 15 years. I have also been a volunteer Fire Fighter for nearly 20 years. I have previously worked in the high tech industry and have made my living at many things to include Auto and Industrial mechanics, construction etc. I know that there are some things that I am not capable of doing well. I also know that I have not come across any of them yet. "Winners Never Quit, Quitters Never Win!"




At age 35, all of which were as a bachelor, I married into a ready made family of a wife, 4 kids and a mother-in-law. Proof enough that at least some men just aren't very bright. Talk about "Culture Shock"!! Actually though I have done well and am quite proud of our children. Not mine biologically but in every other respect, there are.



There have been many people in my life whom are in some degree responsible for my unusually large number of experiences and capabilities. Some seem to have come about naturally while others were a little more challenging. My wife likes to suggest that it might be "Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder" that she swears I have. Maybe so but either way, I enjoy life and try hard to see and do it all as apposed to thinking about how great it would be if I did.

While I love to do things just for me, like the flying, scuba diving, biker, boating, fishing, and EMS medicine, the later is truly a passion for me. I was quite lucky to find that I can hold my own in the face of catastrophe and assist those in need as they navigate the many different "emergencies" that they find themselves in from time to time. In short.... I love helping my fellow man. It seems only fair to me as there are so many that have helped me get to where I am today. I am glad that they were there.