The Health Of A Nonprofit Health Care Clinic - 1281 Words

For this assignment I chose the Health Care topic because I currently work for a nonprofit health care clinic. I have been with the clinic for only two years, but I have seen things happening to McDonaldize healthcare in that short time period. I personally witnessed in the late 1990s the types of changes Ritzer discusses in his book. Our son, Trevor, was born in 1990. Our health insurance was with an HMO, Kaiser Permanente, which was the least expensive option for our family at the time. Trevor had reoccurring ear infections and we were forced to continue seeing the same pediatrician, who kept increasing the strength of the antibiotic he was taking. Nothing was working. We were not allowed to go to a specialist without the†¦show more content†¦My current employer is the Kansas City CARE Clinic. It is one of many safety net clinics within the Kansas City area that will not turn away patients because they cannot pay. The clinic was founded in 1971 by medical students and concerned citizens to provide quality health care to the homeless and indigent people within the Kansas City metro area. The clinic was originally known as the Westport Free Health Clinic, later the name was changed to Kansas City Free Health Clinic and then when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, the clinic became the Kansas City CARE Clinic. The clinic can now take all medical insurances, which has helped treat more uninsured and underinsured patients than ever before. I agree with Ritzer that the for-profit health care organizations are increasingly using the rational medical systems with their focus on lowering costs and increasing profits, which could reduce the quality of health care, especially for the poorest members of society. However, the KC CARE Clinic have been partnering with some of the for-profit organizations from the beginning to assist the poorest members of society. The Community Health Worker (CHW) program is a large program with workers in em ergency rooms of most of the hospitals within the metro area to help those who use the emergency room as their primary care facility. The CHWs help these patients by finding a non-emergency facility to become their primary care