HOSPITAL BED REDUCTION: A CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE

This publication attempted to touch on a very sensitive issue: the closing of hospitals where quality, quantity and cost to provide and expense to buy became baseline criteria.

Medical politics according to Marx (Groucho, not Karl), a humorous consumer with great insight, and a way with words had this to say using Einstein’s relativity theory:

Special Theory: “A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.”

General Theory: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”

Most consumers would find Groucho’s comments about medical care both humorous and sad.