The Waiting Room — a film that makes you think about healthcare

Last night, Staci and I watched the award-wining documentary, The Waiting Room.  Here is an intro from the website: The Waiting Room is a character-driven documentary film that uses extraordinary access to go behind the doors of an American public hospital struggling to care for a community of largely uninsured patients. The film – using a blend of cinema verité and characters’ voiceover – offers a raw, intimate, and even uplifting look at how patients, staff and caregivers each cope with disease, bureaucracy and hard choices. The film touched us both. More than once, as we sat together on a couch watching a high-definition TV, a poignant scene made us look at each other–as if to say: wow, we are lucky cats. We had families that cared for and loved us. By sheer luck of the cosmos, we were both born with gifts that keep us out of safety-net emergency rooms. You feel grateful. A good sensation indeed. The filmmakers did something special. They were patient. The camera lens would focus on a person, and somehow, the sense of anguish, the despair, comes through. Just from their faces. “A month to see the pain doctor. Really?  I suffer all day and all night.” It’s moving. These people are suffering. Life is hard. The thing about humans is that we seem able to rise to challenges. The goodness of people in that ER comes off as a partial antidote against the despair. People are trying to help people. In this way, the film uplifts. I was drawn t...
Source: Dr John M - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: blogs