The premise of Gawande’s essay is overulitziation in hospitals. A lower socioeconomic status (SES) town has similar healthcare expenses to a higher SES town even if their schools and civil service buildings are drastically different.1. However, there is a massive difference in patient expenses between multiple hospitals. For instance, Gawande found that the Mayo Clinic has lower costs as opposed to a McAllen, Texas and the major difference is patient care and only testing when necessary.1 Doctors have determined there are twenty-six tests that are useless for people who do not exhibit specific symptoms and approximately thirty percent of patients receive one of these tests yearly.2 An example of a useless test would be if a person came in for a migraine, with no history of seizures, and the doctor used a test that is specifically for seizures. While testing for seizures would be valuable for certain settings it should only be prudent when the person has a history or exhibits symptoms of seizures. …show more content…
I saw that first hand when I was admitted to the emergency room in New York. I sat next to a woman in the hallway who was in obvious emotional and physical distress. She had been there for hours and was unable to get a diagnosis or treatment because computers with her lab work were malfunctioning. A nurse talked to her and told her she probably had a miscarriage and said they would perform a D&C procedure, which safely removes the baby, and apologized. Two of the goals for health services is to provide patient centered care and prompt care.3 She could have received a faster diagnosis if the hospital had discussed her symptoms in private setting, and used more than bloodwork as a means of