Abigail Zuger, M.D., writes in The New York Times:

“Once hospitals were where you found a doctor when you suddenly needed one; now doctors are all over the place, from big-box stores to storefront clinics. Hospitals were where you were headed if you were very sick; now you can heed your insurer’s pleas and choose a cheaper emergency center instead.

“Hospitals were where you stayed when you were too sick to survive at home; now you go home anyway, cobbling together your own nursing services from friends, relatives and drop-in professionals.

“Once hospitals were where you were kept if you were a danger to yourself or others. They still serve this function — although, perhaps, the standards for predicting these dire outcomes have tightened up quite a bit.

“These days, it may be easier to define hospitals by what they are not. They are not places for the sick to get well, not unless healing takes place in the brief interval of time that makes the stay a compensated expense.

“Hospitals are definitely not places for unusual medical conditions to be figured out, not if the patient is well enough to leave.”

To read her whole essay, please hit this link.