Doctors not at fault for poor patient care

Doctors in the Nashville area are decrying an unjust law that is part of a new wave of accountability. A recent federal policy has stated that doctors must make patients 35% healthier than when they walked in. However, hospitals across the county are posting statistics far lower than that. This year, at least 35% of the patients had to reach the goal of being 35% healthier in all departments in order for the hospitals to be considered successful.

“The real problem here is not our doctors,” claimed one source speaking on condition of anonymity. “These people are not taking care of themselves. They don’t eat correctly, get enough exercise, and some of them even participate in harmful activity, such as drugs and gangs. What are we supposed to do?”

Another health care professional spoke more bluntly. “If the parents of these patients would have done a better job of raising them in a healthy lifestyle, we wouldn’t be having these problems.”

As it is, patients now have the right to request a transfer to hospitals that are not receiving low marks. “It’s not that I don’t like my local hospital and family doctor,” cried one mother, who recently requested a transfer, “I just want the best medical care for my daughter.”

Dear Reader, although this anecdote is not true of our medical care, it is true of our education system. Like medicine, education is not an exact science. We don’t always know what exactly to do with the children who are struggling to learn to make them successful. However, we are charged, as the trained, educated specialists in our field, to make a difference in the lives of children. As in the medical field, we are not always successful; however, if the current track record of many districts existed in our hospitals, you and I both know we would stay far away from those places.

Currently No Child Left Behind is not asking for perfection. It is not asking for a home run. It is asking that at least 35% of students in each given category are rated as proficient. That is just over one third. That means 60% of students in a school can FAIL, and that would still be ok with NCLB. Further, Tennessee has simplified this problem even more by only requiring that students get 35% of the answers right on the test. That means they can get 65% of it wrong, and still be considered proficient! Statistically, a child should be able to guess randomly on a multiple choice test and still get 25% of the answers correct.

I do not believe we are asking too much of our highly skilled, highly educated staff of teachers. It’s not like the problems of poverty, gang activity, absenteeism, etc., sprang up over night and caught us off guard. We know those problems are there. We have been trained to deal with it. We have committed ourselves to the improvement of students and their lives. We ought to be able to do exactly that, at least for 35% of them.

Helpful Hint: If you take the standards that are tested, and only teach 50% of them really, really, really well, you will probably be able to get your students to the proficiency mark next year. It even gives them a bit of a cushion to get some wrong.

-Ted Murcray