I am and have worked in and adjacent to health off and on for over 30 years. They’re telling you the truth. Triage aims to make best use of limited resources, providers, medicines, bed spaces, medical devices, time, allocated funding. And I’ve been on the other end, the one who falls through the cracks. While there are exceptions, it is extremely difficult for those on either end, in any job. In the medical field, if you get too personally invested in care, you burn out quickly, and become unable to care for others or yourself. Health care workers already are forced to put themselves last, when there isn’t enough funding, not enough providers. Same with billing. Same with claims. We know it stinks, but if we didn’t do it from compassion, no one would. Every care provider would only be in it for money. We do learn to control our thoughts and feelings, so we don’t lose our mental and physical health, and the often meager means to support our own basic needs. Some may start the job cold and callous. Some get that way doing the best we can with the tools given us. The vast majority learn self-mastery to continue providing care for as many people as they can.

That’s why, even though I have lost my temper in my current situation, I chose and forced myself to quickly regain my composure. The agent and providers with whom I’m working have been wonderful, if not as either knowledgeable, or having access to the best tools for whatever reason, or some combination thereof.

I have worked with providers who did have and simply didn’t care (and I’m not privy to the cause), and felt the seething resentment on behalf of those in my care. I’ve lost jobs over it, so those who cared less and entered the field because they needed a job and it was the most expedient route. I’ve been visciously physically and verbally assaulted while providing the best care I could, and I’ve injured myself doing too much. And who benefitted from it? Neither patient, care provider, orderly, billing specialist, claims representative. The BoD and majority shareholders, and crooked politicians did (and here I will say even some politicians care, but are constrained by law, unknowledgeable fellow politicians, or greedy ones, or even their own inability to comprehend the vast scope of the entire issue).

And to be frank, you don’t have full comprehension of the issues, either. You fully comprehend your personal perspective, which also lacks a full and clear comprehension of the vast scope of the who l entire issue. I don’t either. Doctors with 50 years experience don’t. Those who have a fuller comprehension have worked multiple roles in the industry, moving from one to another, in various roles in various fields, in various practices. And even then, the ability to grasp a full, complete picture is elusive, let alone full comprehension, because science, knowledge, technology, funding is ever-changing, every moment of every day.