Patch Adams

[Guest guest]

Saw an excellent movie today called Patch adams and found an interesting site. I would recommend everyone interested in health view the movie Patch Adams and then read the complete article at the following site - as it will make more sense after watching the movie.

http://www.patchadams.org/campaign/hospital-paperVision for Building a Free Hospital by Patch Adams

I entered medical school in 1967 to use medicine as a vehicle for

social change. I used my free time to study the history of health care

delivery around the world and to look at contemporary models with the

idea of creating a medical model that would address all the problems of

the way care is delivered. I didn't intend to create a model that would

be the answer to the problems; but to model creative problem solving,

and to spark each medical facility to design their own ideal rather

than succumb to the garbage of managed care, or a resignation to the

impossibility of humanistic care. Beginning in the climate of the

political " war on poverty, " I felt confident that a free hospital to

serve the poorest state, West Virginia, would find easy funding and

that we would be built in four years. I smile writing this as we enter

our 33rd year without having broken ground on the hospital. However, we

have asked our architect to go to finished drawings so that we can

begin building as soon as we have funding in hand. None of the journey

has gone as I imagined and the vision is so much deeper, more

comprehensive and far-reaching as a consequence of such deliberate

progress.