The System My Father Helped Build as a Physician Has Failed Him as a Patient

How a family's experience at the patient bedside reveals what has changed and what has been lost in healthcare

What follows is not just a story about my father, nor only about our two weeks inside a single hospital. It is part of a larger examination of how our healthcare system has changed—from the era when my father, my deceased brother, and I practiced medicine to the post-COVID reality we all now inhabit. This is a story about a system that is treating symptoms and not root causes; and about the current medical culture.

Once again, I want to give gratitude to the staff members that gave good care and were attentive to our needs, especially the nurses.

The full story is for my paid subscribers with the details of our struggle to secure humane, patient-centered care during this visit and what that struggle revealed about the state of healthcare today.