AWESOME article on the Healthcare crisis, Cleveland, Ohio, When Citizens & Doctors VOLUNTEER to give

[RollWithIt]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/07/people_flock_to_university_cir.html

CLEVELAND -- The national health-care crisis had hundreds of faces Saturday and one destination: a modest high-rise in University Circle where hundreds of medical and lay volunteers provided free care to nearly a thousand Ohioans who lacked health insurance.

"You should have had Obama here today. This is what he should see," said Dr. Donald Hricik, a University Hospitals specialist in nephrology and hypertension.

What the President would have seen Saturday was a mass of people in need who began showing up at 5 a.m. at the W.O. Walker Center, a complex jointly operated by the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals.

Three of the floors were taken over by the MedWorks project, which Cleveland Heights banker Zak Ponsky has been planning and organizing for at least a year.

"What they don't know is that these are some of the best doctors in the country," said Dr. Jeff Ponsky, University Hospitals' chief of surgery, and father of the organizer. The doctors, nurses and technicians came primarily from UH, the Clinic and MetroHealth.

As Hricik and UH's Dr. Daniel Ornt saw patients on the 5th floor, a nurse walked into their area and said: "Do you have any yellow dots?"

Ornt handed her one and explained that each patient is assigned a color-coded dot the size of a quarter: red meant urgent care was needed, yellow for follow-up examinations and treatment, green for something that could be treated on the spot. But Ornt said there were not many green patients who could get all they needed then and there.

Nancy Burkhart of Kirtland came to see a cardiologist Saturday. She'd been hospitalized a year ago and needed outpatient care that was unavailable, she said. She lost her secretarial job in 2004 and her medical insurance ran out a year later. As she was being interviewed, an electrocardiogram had been ordered that would determine what additional care she'd get.











I'd be interested if the Red Dots have to be sent into bankruptcy to save their lives.

[pinto]

1. Kick

:kick:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Fascinating article!

K&R

[malletgirl02]

3. Not Just Obama

"You should have had Obama here today. This is what he should see," said Dr. Donald Hricik, a University Hospitals specialist in nephrology and hypertension.

It is not just Obama that should have been there, but every member of Congress.

[Warpy]

4. The comments were also enlghtening

showing that the ranters are out in force, as ignorant of just about everything going on in this country as hate radio can make them.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

5. K&R

[Naturyl]

6. K&R