It's sad. Years ago I was a juror in a wrongful death case where the patient presented with a 107 fever. The Dr. wanted to do a spinal tap, but was told to stabilize and transfer the patient to the insurers hospital, it took him several hours, but he did so. He didn't administer an antibiotic, as he knew it would throw off a spinal that they would do on arrival. The patient was septic and passed away shortly after arriving at the insurers hospital. If you used a dart at a board with all the antibiotics available, any one would have prevented the death.
The Dr. at the admitting facility didn't do what was right, as they previously hadn't been paid when they did, and they were told to accept the insurers guidance which was coming from an accountant there. It turned out the patient had a history of illness all her 8 year life, but a relatively cheap test had never been run by the Doctors for the insurance company, which would have shown she was born without a spleen, a very rare condition. In the end, the Jury made a substantial award with the majority coming from the insurer, but both had some guilt. The doctor at the admitting facility attempted to do what was right, but essentially accountants at both facilities had more to say about what he should, and shouldn't do then the medical staff.
One of the things I really like about City of Hope is they seem to do what's best for the patient, than they fight if necessary to get paid for what they do. A few prescriptions they wanted me on took a few days to get approval, but they never substituted to something the insurance company demanded. As the patient they never really told me of the problems, I just knew it would be a few days, and that was how long it took.
I know of at least a few cases where personalized medications were made there, including modifying T-cells from the patient to fight a particular form of leukemia. My treatment has shown no sign of the leukemia since stem cells were given about four and a half years ago. Potentially I could come off chemo at 5 years, but yesterday in discussing it with my Dr. I probably won't, but perhaps will cut down. Before the stem cells my numbers bobbled, it concerned him enough to believe that even after five years they might do so again. He assured me their were better ways of treating me today if I came out of remission, but he indicated it's not something he wanted to put me through, so I'll probably err on the side of caution.
Gary
