Health Care: How would you like to go to hell?

[MatrixEscape]

(I give full permission for anyone to copy this, reprint it, and use it)

Imagine going to hell when you get older or become infirm?

Well, if MFA (Medical Facilities of America, Inc) is any example of corporate greed for profits, then that may just be your fate: Hell on Earth, and then, (if you are lucky) you die!

I personally know people who work at an MFA run facility called Lovingston Health Care in Virginia. From what I have been told, over and over, and have even seen by going there, this place is proving to be nightmare a true, shadow cast by the current climate of profits over humanity.

We might be able to thank the current flavor of government, (Bush/Repub along with Democrat complacency) for this kind of horrible situation. If it continues unabated, it will certainly be the model for suffering for many of us in the future. We will get old and we may become infirm. The State seems to pay the problem no mind and there seems to be no way to overcome the malfeasances of the wealth-building ownership, (I hear that the CEO/founder made $60 mil this year) and the complicit, complacent endlessly hungry investors, (would they really want to know what suffering their money creates?) And remember, you, by way of taxes and such, are footing this particular bill for the most part unless the inmate there has property or other equity to drain before that point.

Before I cite the problems that this place has, (and it is private health care, not state-run) I want to ask you all if you could consider what it would be like to end-up in a mess like this? I mean, you are not in prison, you are just old or incapacitated to some degree. You, in some way, are able to pay for the care, so that is not an issue. Because the State only comes in to do certain kinds of oversight at prescribed times, (they are ready for it) and cares little about the ratio of staff to patients, MFA can reap maximum profits and still appear to be an acceptable facility in Lovingston Virginia. In truth, this facility is deplorable and is not at all acceptable in any way, shape or form. And it looks like the corporate model for profits is winning out here and might be reaching all of us as we find ourselves at that end of life where choices are few.

Understaffing, (only to save money and increase profit) is a major issue. You could have two CNA's and to nurses to handle over 60 patients on a night shift -- maybe less. The management is poor and they are serving as corporate lackeys who only exist to serve the CEO and investors, nothing more. They are paid well to hide, keep out of site, and simply manage a horrible situation that is beginning to look like more of a concentration camp than a health care facility. And you can quote me!

Keep in mind that there are two kinds of people who work there. The day shift, (which is more obvious) is allowed to provide only superficial value for the patients. At the end of the day, they leave the night shift with an endless amount of neglect and certifiable horror when it comes to human dignity and respect. Remember that the supreme mismanagement, most likely based on corporate mandates, makes this so. The day shift is allowed to get by with minimal care while providing a better face to families. That is the point. We are talking about patients who have not been properly medicated, laying in soiled diapers, developing bed sores, etc.

The food service is deplorable and not at all on par with what you might expect when the residents are, one way or another, paying 3K a month for their care and stay there. That is absolutley rediculous. If you want to know what kind of horrible, ridiculous diet you are going to get a facilty like that, just respond to this post and I will be glad to fill you in in detail. Rest assured, you could eat better at McDonald's anytime! There is no concern about nutrition or even the quality offered or the enjoyment of the food by the people who have to eat the garbage offered. That is only a small part of it, and wouldn't you think you could eat enjoyable food and even have the benefits of choice, a dietitian, and other things when you pay that much and have no other choice? Are your old Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, etc., eating in such a disgusting way at the nursing home? Are you really paying attention, or is this MFA facility an exception to the corporate rule?

The help at this MFA run facility are good people and they are genuine care givers by NATURE. Yet, this facility is discouraging their care and compassion and breaking each and every one of them down into the corporate model stereo-type, and they cannot do their jobs or continue in that fashion. It will NOT work! Lovingston Health Care is is on the verge of major problems, (they pay so little that any new, inexperienced help goes through a revolving door) and the major casualty, (as it is now) will be the poor residents of this Auschwitz for the old and infirm. Keep in mind, they are paying top-dollar for their internment and the problem is, many of them are not in a clear mental state where they can do much about the situation. Their families are often not concerned enough to notice, (such a shame) the poor care, due to the neglect of the company itself, they are getting day after day, after horrible day.

Because the company is FOR PROFIT ONLY, the facility is more like moving cattle to slaughter than anything you you might imagine. They get away with it! The time has come to stop that. These patients get nothing near the care they pay for at such a price as far as food, attention, therapy, entertainment, care, or even social events, goes. They are nothing more than profitable meat for MFA and its CEO. The trick is, YOU are paying for this neglect as well as the poor morale from underpaid, overstressed employees. They are pushed to their very mental and emotional limits and their hearts are crushed by the limits and pitfalls of working under the flag of corporate profits. This is deplorable and should not be accepted in anyway by anyone.

This MFA facility, in its lust for money, accepts and keeps patients that are not at all appropriate for its capacities and staff. That means that Nurses and CNA's get literally beaten and abused by the "inmates", (as MFA should be calling them ... patients do not get treated this way in my book). The management has not regard or concern for the types of cases they admit. They simply "recruit" what will fill beds and keep the profits flowing. This is detrimental, both mentally and physically, to the caring staff who are gradually being reduced from professionals to cattle herders as the money continues to flow unabated!

I could go on and on and on, and if you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them. There is more to this than I could reasonably relate in a post here. I posted this because I see the end results and I certainly fee the results that nothing put profit as a concern can bring. From all that I know, I would certainly rather die in any other way than in an MFA facilty at this point. I mean, they shoot horses, don't they?

I don't know what good it will do, but any activists that want to target that wonderfully successful profit magnet that processes people for revenue, MFA, should surely do so for the sake of the staff and the poor patients that we may end up being someday.