Want to Help the Healthcare Crisis?

Want to give back to the community? Want to help with the healthcare crisis? Consider donating your time and resources to a free healthcare clinic http://freeclinics.us/ These events are in need of volunteers, of course they always need healthcare workers to make it happen, but also need others to make the event function smoothly. If you can’t donate your time, how about money to help serve those that can’t afford healthcare?

For those that live in the Kansas City area:
The National Association of Free Clinics has been very busy this fall as a result of the CARE Clinic in Houston sponsored by Dr. Oz where we saw almost 1800 people on a Saturday in September and then the phenomenal response from across the nation as a result of a call to action by Keith Olbermann on Countdown that raised money to support additional clinics.

We are pleased that on December 9th and 10th the National Association of Free Clinics (NAFC) will be sponsoring a two-day clinic in Kansas City at Bartle Hall and the health care community here is responding to make it happen.

We are recruiting volunteers—professional and lay people—and are just beginning the planning. I hope you will send this on to those in your contact list that might be interested in working with us. And, if you would like to help in the planning, let me know.

The website for volunteer to sign up to work at the Clinic itself should be up over the weekend.

This is an exciting opportunity to show the nation the wonderful way that Kansas City comes together to serve the uninsured!

Sheridan Y. Wood
Executive Director
Kansas City Free Health Clinic
3515 Broadway
Kansas City, MO 64111
DD: 816.777.2763
Other: 816.753.5144 Ext. 263
Fax: 816.777.2796
http://www.kcfree.org/

Should we wait to fix a mistake?

Sometimes mistakes happen in business. It can be as simple as staff error or equipment failure. In medicine this can have an adverse affect on the patient. In business it can mean bad publicity, for example recently a man was at a famous casino and the machine indicated that he had won $166 million. However the machine’s top prize was only $2,500. Initially they told him that it was a mistake and that he would take away nothing even though the machine clearly showed that he had won something. They pointed out the disclaimer on the machine and told him that it was an electronic error and therefore no prize would be awarded. Needless to say, he had the news on this one and it hit the wire service and was picked up and broadcasted around the country. The big question will be how much is this going to cost the business in the long run? Maybe they shouldn’t pay the entire amount that the man thought he won, but why not pay the machine’s maximum limit since it did show that he had won something? How many people have heard about this and how much is it going to affect the business image? Would it not have been worth it to offer something to the man on the spot? Later on after the story initially ran and they received so much negative publicity, they did offer an undisclosed settlement, but the damage had already been done to their reputation.

Every day in practices across the country, mistakes can happen. There has always been concern about admitting mistakes in healthcare, but sometimes it is a good idea and as soon as possible. Maybe just a simply apology from the staff member that made the mistake may be enough to satisfy the person before the problem spreads. How many people will the unhappy patient tell the longer the problem exists? What damage will it do and with on-line comments can it even be measured any more? The question becomes how much is our image worth to us? Everyone makes mistakes, but waiting to fix them can hurt.

Red Flag Delayed Again!

This may seem like a broken record, but yes the Red Flag Rules have been delayed.
"At the request of Members of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission is delaying enforcement of the “Red Flags” Rule until June 1, 2010, for financial institutions and creditors subject to enforcement by the FTC." For more details http://www2.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/redflags.shtm