Daily dose of frstration.

During class this morning, a discussion arose regarding how hospitals fit into the sociological (garbage) concept of "McDonaldization. Now, first of all, heaven for bid if McDonalds doesn't run the most successful company in the world, so to use that term to clearly imply something that's wrong is, itself, wrong. In any event, one of the other students commented that hospitals don't fit the idea of "efficiency" because of long waits in the ER, and started to bitch about it. Calmly I raised my hand, and defended the imperfect hospital system. Not because I particularly enjoy long ER waits, but because there simply is not an endless supply of Doctors/money that hospitals can spend on staff. Being sick sucks and the hospitals are doing the best they can. This, however, wasn't the real kicker. The student then dove into the whole "they don't even know my records from previous tests so they have to waste time running more which is so inefficient" bit. I won't disagree with the fact that that is inefficient. However, what really got me going was his, and other students' support for a system in which there would be universal access by all physicians to ANY persons medical records at any time, just in case you happen to get sick in, say, a foreign land. I cannot possibly be the only person that see's this as a disgusting invasion of personal privacy, not to mention ILLEGAL. Its not my fault that you decided to journey to the Amazon and got some Oregon Trail jungle disease that no longer threatens civilized society, and I'm not willing to lose my personal privacy because you think you're "cultural." If you go to an ER ANYWHERE in the US, there is a place on the check in form where you can provide the name and # of your primary care physician who has any pertinent record that is necessary. Should I lose my right to privacy because you're to foolish to know/have your Dr's #? No sir. Sometimes, reality sucks, but in the long run, idealism is far worse.