By Steve Moran

This is very personal to me.

My 91-year-old stepfather lives with us. He has progressively worsening dementia. A few days ago I woke up to him being miserably sick. Off to the emergency room we went. A couple hours and a dozen tests later, it turns out he has COVID, putting further stress on his already weakening heart and massively increasing his confusion.

Two days later, I tested positive for COVID. Now, today, they have decided he can be discharged back home while still testing positive. They want the bed back to fill it with another patient. Another patient with more dollars.

They know they have a moral and legal obligation to facilitate a safe discharge, but that is much less important than turning the bed.

Missing the Point

The health care system has become a big business where cash flow and revenue are the most important things. The health care system says all the right things about caring and compassion. There are billboards and posters, spokespeople saying the right things and blog posts and videos proclaiming how much they care about people.

I suspect they even tell themselves they care. But the whole system is designed to primarily protect the economic interests of the system.

Senior Living

Senior living has a huge opportunity to provide better, more compassionate, more lifestyle oriented care as a part of the hospital system. For instance, right now, discharging my stepfather to a memory care community that could handle his COVID for a few more days would save the system money and give him more peace and a higher quality of life.

There is nothing wrong with making a profit. I am a huge believer in running profitable businesses, but it always needs to be done in the context of making sure the customer is well taken care of, has a great experience.

We in senior living must never forget that taking care of our residents and family is the first thing, the most important thing. When we do that, the profits will be there.

We must not become like the hospital systems of today, like Sutter Health is to me and my family. It is morally repugnant. We are better than this; we must stay better than this.

P.S. I know how to fight, and ultimately they will do the right thing. But right now I should be in bed sleeping, recovering, not fighting to get what every hospital executive would insist on for their own loved one.