Healthcare in America: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Seemingly long gone are the days when most doctors had the fund of knowledge and broad-based skillsets enabling them to effectively manage most of their patient’s healthcare conditions. Dr. Cole explains why America needs more specialists who think and act like generalists, and more generalists who think and act like specialists.

The increasingly aged population living with a large number of chronic diseases creates an ongoing need for additional healthcare workers. Countless people describe healthcare as rewarding in innumerable ways, however many entertaining a career in the field are not aware of all of the options, which Dr. Cole discusses at length.

Dr. Cole discusses how Emergency Rooms have changed over the years. Intended to care for genuine emergencies, people often go to the ER for issues once managed in an office setting. Problems include decreases in physician-to-patient staffing ratios and substitution of mid-level providers for board-certified Emergency Medicine physician specialists.

The Novel Coronavirus is a rapidly evolving health concern having the potential of becoming a global pandemic. Dr. Cole discusses this newly discovered strain, gives recommendations on how we might avoid this illness, and summarizes efforts being made by the agencies tasked with combating this crisis.

The depersonalization of US Healthcare has created confusion as to who or what entity is really in charge of our care. In this segment, Dr. Cole talks about how patients, physicians, insurance companies, and healthcare corporations all share a portion of the blame for this shift -- leading to the question of, who can we trust?

Being raised by a Primary Care Physician (PCP), and having worked closely with them for decades, Dr. Cole talks about the changing role of the PCP, and why many of them today do not meet our expectations, at times being replaced entirely by non-physician providers.

In this first episode, Dr. James Cole introduces Healthcare in America: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Dr. Cole outlines his extensive experience in the U.S. healthcare system over the past 30+ years and summarizes various topics that will be discussed at a later date such as health insurance, primary care physicians, and mental health.