The Fall of Crozer Health, Part 6: Eight Months Later
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Eight months ago, we followed along as Prospect Medical shuttered Crozer Health. In this episode, as promised, several of the doctors, nurses, medical assistants, elected officials and public servants we spoke to initially tell us how they have fared since. A few themes emerged: the unexpected domino effects when a hospital closes, the importance of community, trust, and transparency, the mismatch between healthcare executives in pursuit of profit and medical professionals in pursuit of public service (and the moral injury that results), and their relentless commitment to and hope...
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Teaser: The Fall of Crozer Health, Part 6
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We promised to follow up on The Fall of Crozer Health and we'll drop our full episode on Monday. For anyone thinking of selling to private equity, you won't want to miss this.
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Dialysis in the US: Blood, Death, and Dollars
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Was dialysis the canary in medicine's coal mine of corporatization, as neoliberalism took hold in the US? Tom Mueller, journalist and author of “How to Make a Killing: Blood, Death, and Dollars in American Medicine”, joins us to talk about how dialysis became a "microcosm of American medicine" and what we can do to fix it.
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"Change the way you see things"
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We make a lot of changes that don't make much difference. Why? In this episode, Wendy and Matt borrow the perspective of rancher and regenerative agriculture proponent, Don Campbell, who said, "If you want to make small changes, change the way you do things. If you want to make major changes, change the way you see things". We apply that big picture thinking to solutions-finding in healthcare.
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"He Hit Me. He Hit a Police Officer."
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In 2023, 82% of nurses had experienced at least one workplace violence incident, and nearly half were experiencing even more violence. And it’s not just nurses. Surgeons, ER docs, primary care physicians and others know violence in healthcare is on the rise. Erin Pastore and Marie Lopresti, two ED nurses in Philadelphia, share their personal experiences with violence in their workplace, and how to restore the balance we all - patients and practitioners, alike - need. Listener discretion advised.
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Chris Deacon on Why We're Paying More and Getting Less
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As the former head of the State Health Benefits Program within New Jersey’s Department of the Treasury - one of the largest public health plans in the country - Chris Deacon unmasked the machinery of healthcare and didn't like what she saw. Now a nationally recognized voice for health plan transparency and employer empowerment, Chris joins us to talk about her new book “The Great American Healthcare Heist: Why We’re Paying More and Getting Less”.
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"The Perfect Tuba"
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You read that correctly. Sometimes we have to look outside of medicine to be reminded why we love it so much. National Book Critics Circle Award-winning journalist Sam Quinones joins us to talk about "The Perfect Tuba", his new book about people creating something bigger than themselves, hard work, practice, dedication, and community. Sound familiar?
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Music and Medicine
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Dr. Carlos Cardenas knows rock n' roll (and gastroenterology). A practicing physician in the Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Cardenas has been playing music for decades as a balm for his heart and soul, and as it turns out, for his patients. In the words of Dr. Cardenas, when it comes to healing people, "music is at the core of it all".
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A New Gilded Age?
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Are we living in The Gilded Age of medicine? So many of the challenges we face in healthcare today are rooted in the motivations of the people holding the purse strings, and unfortunately for us (and our patients) those motivations aren't always aligned with the Hippocratic Oath. Wendy and Matt dig into the history of corporate greed in this country, and how that history may be repeating itself.
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"The Pitt": Behind the Scenes with Jacob Lentz, MD
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Few medical dramas have resonated as deeply with physicians as HBO's The Pitt. Emergency physician Dr. Jacob Lentz, a medical consultant on the series, takes us behind the scenes of the critically acclaimed show and explains how - and why - The Pitt gets ER medicine so right. Credit: Audio clips from The Pitt courtesy of HBO Max.
info_outlineThe 2024 election is over. Navigating the results has just begun. Our advice? Ski the gaps.
To learn more about some of the ideas mentioned in this episode, check out Jennifer Pahlka on Substack, and Ezra Klein in the New York Times.