Can Dennis Quaid’s fight to make sense of his twin babies’ harrowing ordeal at Cedars Sinai change the face of medicine? I’m betting on Quaid and his family’s new foundation.
Quaid’s appearance on the Today Show aired a straight-forward issue that has become unnecessarily overly-complicated on Capitol Hill, in state houses and in the media. The actor brings straight talk to a topic that has withered on the vines because politicians, journalists and opinion leaders have deferred to the medical-insurance complex’s "sky is falling" economic assumptions about the cost of change.
Why would a rich hospital like Cedars still refuse to computerize its RX dispensing for safety reasons after such a high profile problem? Why not a bar code safety system for all medicines in the US? If supermarkets can do it, why not hospitals?
Our knowledge about the epidemic of medical errors and medical negligence is not new. Quaid is the best hope I have seen in decades for bringing home reform Ronald Reagan-style. Sitting down for a chat with Americans and focusing public opinion and politicians on simple answers through common sense talk.
