Corporate health care is doomed. Here ’s why.

As health care increasingly propels itself into the world of corporations and big business, it may seem like the practice of medicine has entered an irreversible new era. Gone are the days of good old Dr. Wilson in his solo private practice around the corner, loved and respected by all his patients and the community. Nowadays, it’s all about mega multi-specialty groups, health care mergers and hostile corporate takeovers. Being someone who’s quite middle-of-the-road when it comes to politics, I’m not anti-big business by any means. Capitalism and globalization have produced countless benefits to humankind. Who can argue against companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google being an overall great positive for the world? But at the same time, that doesn’t mean that every industry is as amenable to big business as others. The service industry is the most prominent example. Humans being humans, we still crave uniqueness and personal relationships. This is something sadly lacking in the corporate world at large, where transience and temporary, fleeting interactions are the norms. Taking restaurants as another example, the most famous and loved eateries in any given town or city are seldom the big cookie-cutter chains, but the restaurants that are owned locally and provide their special menus and exceptional service. The experiment over the last couple of decades of turning health care into a corporate and big business entity may thus be doomed to fail for a few reasons: Conti...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Hospital Source Type: blogs