Politics as Usual

Interesting to watch the political world from a front row seat here a short distance from D.C. It's also not hard to get quite cynical (or savvy) about how things really work here in the "seat of power". It's been said that the standard operating proceedure of politics is division, distraction and destruction. It's not that far off when you think about it. Our politics are divided into two major parties, there is the constant distraction of "mud slinging" between candidates and parties, and the lack of action on major social issues causes destruction of the infrastructure of the Country (e.g., the current state of the power grid). Politics as usual also leaves our healthcare system in a state of division, distraction and duplication. The episodic nature of the reimbursement system, the individualistic nature of the practitioners coupled with non-integrated health information systems, and the need for every hospital in an area to compete for the same patient types (cardiac, emergent, etc) lead to the outrageous cost of the care provided. Local politicians are courted by health care executives to get favorable allowances on everything. Cartainly, local health systems can improve the economy by creating jobs that are usually very stable and high paying. Because of the return-on-investment and favorable tax profile (most hospitals are IRS non-profit designated), everyone wants a piece of the action. Soon the duplication and distraction are in full swing. The answer to "politics as usual"? We need to have integrators that can take the disparate pieces of the political process and have a "big picture" view of the whole. We need to have a view from Washington that allows for the fact that the current politics don't serve the people well on may if not most areas. We need boundary leaders who can see their way past business as usual and create new connections that defeat SOP. If we don't, there will never be any real healing and we'll stay with politics as usual. Time for something new. Peace for the journey, Dan