Presented by Dr. Paul Chavin, a member of the downtown club. Dr. Chavin is a practicing OB/GYN in our area and past Chief of Staff at McKenzie Willamette Hospital. He is also past Chairman of the Board of Pacific Source Health Plans
Notes from his presentation:
Dr. Barnhart who performed the first heart transplant said that he was speaking in South Africa, and was chauffeured by a young man who was force to watch his lecture. He repeated back his lecture to him to entertain him. Michael Debakey, that question is so simple, I’m going to have my chauffeur answer it.
Dr. Chavin came to Eugene in 1977. At that time, Sacred Heart had its downtown clinic. The Eugene Hospital was alive and well and McKenzie Willamette had just expanded.
The Ducks had just hired Rich Brooks with a salary at $35,000.
Elvis had passed away at 42.
Deliveries and abortions were about the same price: $300
What’s changed?
In 1986, it became law that emergency rooms could not turn people away. This dramatically affected health care.
The genesis of specialty areas (like Slocum) have grown because they have no emergency room and don’t have to provide “free” services.
ICD10 is the international statistical classification of diseases and all doctors must use it. There are currently 16,000 codes and they will all change.
Hospice was introduced in the 60s which has extended the life of the dying by 29 days on average.
Technology has been introduced continually, like the Nuclear Magnetic Residence (which was renamed to MRI.)
The Oregon Death with Dignity act was introduced in 1997.
Assisted Living Homes were introduced.
We’ve recently had the 50th anniversary of Medicare.
Today and in the future:
Today we can get flu shots at pharmacies.
DNA testing and genotyping, robotic surgery, tele-medicine, and self diagnosis are all on the rise.
Pandemics are on the rise.
Medicine is increasingly being performed as a team sport.
Generic drug prices are going up and will continue to do so. (Acquaint yourself with theNNT.Com — is there evidence you should be taking that drug?)
We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. Today’s gospel is tomorrow’s heresy.
Our country does a great job with acute care but a poor job with preventative care. Managed care is a ridiculous idea designed to provide as few services to those covered as possible.
Dr. Chavin’s opinion is that the system is unfair and set up badly. He believes we are headed toward national health care.