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Musings on Random Musings


Kara Zor-El

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

How so? I'm pretty sure that ignoring Christmas isn't the intent of commercialization' date=' so I don't see how doing so is giving in to it.[/quote']

Well, this is just me, but it seems like people who say they avoid Christmas generally do so because they think it's over-commercialized. An over-commercialized holiday is bad.

 

Turning a holiday about family into a commercial sale day is bad.

 

I don't get how the thought process goes from there to "turning a holiday about family into a holiday about nothing" is better. I'm not trying to be hostile; this is something I just don't understand. Well, unless you've got a hateful family. Then I understand, in a vague way, that it could be difficult.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Well, this is just me, but it seems like people who say they avoid Christmas generally do so because they think it's over-commercialized. An over-commercialized holiday is bad.

 

Turning a holiday about family into a commercial sale day is bad.

 

I don't get how the thought process goes from there to "turning a holiday about family into a holiday about nothing" is better. I'm not trying to be hostile; this is something I just don't understand. Well, unless you've got a hateful family. Then I understand, in a vague way, that it could be difficult.

 

After you read this, you probably still won't understand...

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/39621-Lucius-Alexander-s-Yule-Essay

 

but it's the best explanation I have, so if you still don't understand, never mind.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary wonders if there's anything new to be said or if I will pass on revising it again this year.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

What's an "anamnesis"? Never even heard that word before' date=' that I can recall.[/quote']

Anamnes in Swedish, ought to be anamnesis in English but I don't know if that word actually exists. Anamnes is basically the part of a doctor's appointment where the doctor tries to find out about you as a person and your ailments. Kinda like an interview.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Well, this is just me, but it seems like people who say they avoid Christmas generally do so because they think it's over-commercialized. An over-commercialized holiday is bad.

 

Turning a holiday about family into a commercial sale day is bad.

 

I don't get how the thought process goes from there to "turning a holiday about family into a holiday about nothing" is better. I'm not trying to be hostile; this is something I just don't understand. Well, unless you've got a hateful family. Then I understand, in a vague way, that it could be difficult.

 

Eh, it depends. Some people want to avoid it because they think it is over commercialized, but I'm pretty sure that getting people to want to ignore Christmas isn't the intent of the marketing types.

 

For a lot of people, Christmas isn't a holiday about family. It is a holiday about being required to get gifts for everyone they know. And having their worth as a person by successfully remembering everyone that they are "required" to get a gift for, and then getting that person a gift that they like.

 

For some people Christmas is a time of year that they are reminded that they don't have a loving family or friends in their lives. Whether it is true or not.

 

Heck, I've known people who would be mightily offended that you would suggest that it is a holiday season about family and would instead insist that it is a holiday season about an important event in their religion. And that if families get together that is merely incidental. Some of those people are aware that the calendar timing of the event was chosen because it was a time that people were already used to celebrating a different religious holiday, but a lot are not.

 

And for some people it is a convenient time of the year to get together with the family that they love, regardless of what other baggage anyone else brings to the table. Some of these people attach a religious significance to the holiday, and some don't.

 

I have of course missed a number of other possibilities, but you get the idea.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Anamnes in Swedish' date=' ought to be anamnesis in English but I don't know if that word actually exists. [i']Anamnes [/i] is basically the part of a doctor's appointment where the doctor tries to find out about you as a person and your ailments. Kinda like an interview.

 

I believe in the US that would be called "taking a history". I don't remember ever hearing anamnesis used in that context.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

How is your system re. paper? We're almost completely computerized' date=' bar when a patient requests a printout of their case file.[/quote']

 

Let me give you an example: During the rollout of a new system for the Electrophysiology (EP) docs, I was informed by one of the docs that on average there are 27 different paper forms that are required for each procedure. And we actually do have an electronic medical record (EMR) system.

 

On the flip side of that, the hospital where my daughter was born the only paper forms involved were her birth certificate and the application for her SSN.

 

What the US healthcare system needs is a standardized EMR. Even the hospital systems with the best EMRs for the most part only share information with other hospitals in the same system. I'm insured through Kaiser, who is somewhat unusual in the US in that they are both the insurance company and the healthcare provider. For the most part I can go to any Kaiser hospital in the US and they'll be able to get to my medial record. If I'm outside of my local area it might take a bit of time, but they can get there. However if I am in an accident and get taken to a non-Kaiser ER they won't have any access to my records.

 

We are making strides towards it, but it is a slow and painful process.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

After you read this, you probably still won't understand...

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/39621-Lucius-Alexander-s-Yule-Essay

 

but it's the best explanation I have, so if you still don't understand, never mind.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary wonders if there's anything new to be said or if I will pass on revising it again this year.

I understand your point. I just don't agree with much of it. Different viewpoints.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

... Sweet Jeebus' date=' you certainly like your red tape, don't you. ^^[/quote']

 

You have no idea.

 

A senior colleague of mine was on vacation in Italy and blew out his knee while mountain hiking. He was taken to a hospital in Florence, I think, where they stitched it back together. He has health insurance in the US, but the Italian hospital could not supply a sufficiently granular itemization of the billing for the insurance company to accept it all. So instead of the standard out-of-network co-pay his insurance promises, he was out about $3k, IIRC.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

... Sweet Jeebus' date=' you certainly like your red tape, don't you. ^^[/quote']

 

Me personally? Not so much. The hospital I work for? Sometimes it seems that red tape is what holds it together. But it is a University Hospital, so that is kind of expected. We are however putting a new EMR into place over the next several years. The base system is the same system that Kaiser uses, so it has the potential to reduce the required paperwork by a lot.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

See, there's an arms race involved.

 

Health insurance companies here make money by stonewalling claims and requiring increasing levels of documentation, unstatedly but strictly for the purpose of defeating claimants so the insurance companies don't have to pay. Hospitals in particular and medical practitioners in general have strong motivation to keep up with the nonsense because in general their patients can't pay without the insurance coverage that the patients are paying for. This costs everyone more money, but no one but the patients has a real motivation to put an end to that cycle. But of those involved, the patients have the least economic and political power, because they don't have large war chests to buy legislators.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

The guys with the money control the media, and the media casts people who are concerned about health costs as communist atheist non-American Islamic African terrorists, or malingering slobs trying to get stuff for free.

 

I can't blame you for not paying attention to the US election campaign that ended yesterday, but that really is what it's all about.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

... And the patients haven't revolted because ... ?

 

The guys with the money control the media, and the media casts people who are concerned about health costs as communist atheist non-American Islamic African terrorists, or malingering slobs trying to get stuff for free.

 

I can't blame you for not paying attention to the US election campaign that ended yesterday, but that really is what it's all about.

 

Added to that: There is the perception in the US that if the government is involved in providing something like healthcare that they will be in the group that is paying for more than they are "using". Mostly because they don't seem to understand that for the most part the only way in the long run to be in that group is to die young without an extended hospital stay or heroic lifesaving efforts being made.

 

That being said, we have already taken another useful step towards improving our healthcare system. We'll see if it survives.

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Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

I sure hope not. You must be wrong. Every Scandinavian I've had the pleasure to meet was actually courteous and articulate, which is sort of the opposite of every New Yorker I've met.

 

Hopefully, you mean, the same population count. Not the same population.

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