A long dental appointment filled this morning -- with much annoyance on my part. I was there for 90 minutes, that included a 45 minute period just sitting in the dental chair waiting for someone to have time to start the procedure I needed. I was handed a magazine to help me occupy my time -- a magazine that under normal circumstances I'd never buy or read -- one of those women's magazines that is nothing but a huge set of advertisements for cosmetics, etc.
I am a health professional so perhaps this all aggravates me more. We have a system that operates to maximize the system, rather than really trying to deliver services that meet people's needs. This wait was not due to another person needing services for a dental emergency or anything like that -- it is was due to the belief that the time of the dental professionals is more valuable than the time of the patients they serve.
Wednesday included a class that started at 4:00 (16:00 for my European readers) and continued to 5:40 PM. I happened to look out the window and thought the late afternoon view was quite beautiful.
The above view is out of one of the classrooms in the library. The white expanse is the roof of the attached public library which is a one story building. This is an unusual partnership. When the new library was built for our university, it included space for a public library branch. This brought public library services into an area of the city that was really lacking access.
We see in the background St. John's Hall. St. John's is an unusual name for a public university. The name is attached to the fact that this building was originally St. John's Hospital. I used to have an office in this building with a window looking towards the library. I truly enjoyed seeing the parade of people, both adults and children, everyday walking down the sidewalk to the public library.
We are in the very coldest days of winter -- and we are truly having winter this year in Minnesota, after several years of milder winters. The snow falls and temperatures are like I remember from the 1980s, temperatures and snowfall that are surprise to younger people, who if they remember these conditions, remember them from the perspective of how much fun they had on snow days.
I gauge the weather now by looking out the window across to the bluff and seeing how much steam is coming out of the chimney for the hospice across the way. I enjoy this view every morning too because the rising sun turns the building a beautiful coral color.
This hospice is for persons who do not have health insurance. And speaking of hospice -- interesting data from a Health Reform Roundtable I attended at the University of Minnesota. The Kaiser Permanente system on the West Coast has 10 million participants. Data from this system now shows that persons with late stages of cancer who go on to receive standard treatment such as chemo or radiation live 29 days fewer than persons who simply enter hospice -- not to mention also the difference in quality of life provided in hospice care.
And part of the morning view is usually a train. The main switching yard is about 4 miles away. A train comes in and stops and waits for clearance into the switch yard. Stopping along the track that is out my window keeps the trains far enough away from tripping off all the signal lights and barriers.
So life is moving along.
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