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How do hospitals really work? [Child's Play related]
dorin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been thinking about donating to Child's Play for a while now, and today's episode of PATV brought that back into the forefront of my mind. The thing that has been stopping me from donating is a lack of knowledge about how the hospital system really works. I've never been in the hospital myself, and all my parents ever told me as a kid was that it was too expensive and that I had better pray I never needed to go there. This and some anecdotal evidence has left me with an impression that hospitals are - at their core - uncaring, greedy, capitalistic machines that are only there to make money and will take any opportunity to do so. I have no idea if this is really true or not. I know that there are people that work at hospitals that genuinely care about the patients and only want to help people, but I am talking about the hospitals themselves.
My concern is that by donating to Child's Play, I will be supplying a hospital with something it should be providing to children anyway. If they are just capitalist machines that pass on any and all cost to the patients, then they should be buying video game systems already and building the cost in. If I donate to Child's Play, I don't want to just be helping the hospital profit more, by giving them one less thing to buy. I want to put games in the hands of sick kids that wouldn't already have access to them.
Some questions that I think will help me reach a decision are:
Are hospitals non-profit?
If hospitals are for-profit, do they buy games for their children, even if Child's Play doesn't assit?
If some are, and some aren't, does Child's Play only donate to the non-profit ones?
My concern is that by donating to Child's Play, I will be supplying a hospital with something it should be providing to children anyway. If they are just capitalist machines that pass on any and all cost to the patients, then they should be buying video game systems already and building the cost in. If I donate to Child's Play, I don't want to just be helping the hospital profit more, by giving them one less thing to buy. I want to put games in the hands of sick kids that wouldn't already have access to them.
Some questions that I think will help me reach a decision are:
Are hospitals non-profit?
If hospitals are for-profit, do they buy games for their children, even if Child's Play doesn't assit?
If some are, and some aren't, does Child's Play only donate to the non-profit ones?
dorin on
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Posts
To attempt answer your original questions.
Some hospitals are for profit and some are non-profit.
Many hospitals do provide that sort of thing without Child's Play.
I don't know if being non-profit is a specific qualifier for a hospital getting hooked up with Child's Play.
I don't see why you'd have any hesitation in donating.
This is really accurate.
A hospitals primary goal is make you better, not to make sure you enjoy your time at a hospital. The idea that you are going to buy video games and toys for people between the ages of 6 and 18 is ridiculous because they are such a small portion of the people a full service hospital sees in a given year. Many hospitals do treat only those under the age of 21, but that isn't the majority of the population.
For some perspective:
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia will prolong the life of every single prematurely born baby it takes in and invests more in radical treatment than I care to imagine. They may only give your child a wee or two more of life, but they go to the ends of the medical world for children. There hospital is an array of amazing colors where everyone smiles and even the ICU makes you feel warm and fuzzy.
Right next door to them is their big brother, The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Walking into that build feels exactly like a hospital that has the life sucked out of it. Everything is the same color, people rush around, there isn't too much natural light and everyone gets down to the business of saving lives. It is still an amazing hospital that gives you top notch medical care, but if you were a child only of these places would make you feel safe.
Child's Play is trying to make every hospital child friendly, which isn't an easy thing to do, but is becoming increasingly important in our world.
Don't confuse not-for-profit with non-profit. All hospitals are run like a business trying to turn a profit, not for profit just means they have to reinvest a percentage of the money to maintain the status and get some nice perks in the form of tax incentives and funding from various state and federal programs.
Private and nfp hospitals both make a tremendous amount of money, the nfp hospitals typically have to run a huge ER and take anyone who walks through the door, private (for profit) hospitals can usually elect to just not have a general service trauma ER.
NFP has to reinvest money into new equipment, this does not normally mean toys and things that children find fun. I don't actually know of many (if any, trying to think of it) for profit children only hospitals. I am sure they exist somewhere, though.
The nice thing about Child's Play is you don't have to know anything about all this stupid nonsense and who has to spend what where to maintain their tax perks.
Child's Play gives games and entertainment directly to children bypassing all of the stupid you will find in a hospital budget.
1. Doctors & Nurses - Directly Administer care
2. Admin Staff - Cheaper than Doc/Nurse to schedule and do office tasks
3. Maintenance Staff - Everything from Heating, IT, Medical Equipment (really complex and can't really break at a critical moment) to general Janitors
4. Other White-Collar Staff - Accountants, IT staff, PR, Management etc.
Most of these people are trained professionals, and therefore not cheap. Also, there's a constant war between insurers, medicare and hospitals around the price of care, which takes more time out of everyones day. Not to mention the people that come into NFP hospitals and never pay their bill (which is part of the bent of Universal Health Care, as at most places no one can be refused care). All of these costs roll into a hospital bill, and things like toys & games can be considered "a waste" by shareholders or trustees.
All of these things cost money
Hospitals are expensive because they perform miracles on a daily basis, not because they're "capitalist machines".
By all means, you can put a donation directly towards a non-profit Child's Play hospital.
I know there is a massive difference between the health care in the US to the healthcare in the UK (private, profit-led vs. public health care in the NHS), but that doesn't change the above.
You could always stipulate which hospital you want to support - Manchester Children's Hospital, in Manchester, UK for example!
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