On December 3, 2015, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health sent a complaint to one of the best hospitals on the planet, Brigham and Women's in Boston. Based on a records review and twenty-five interviews, the health department concluded the hospital violated its very own policies in order to give a VIP special treatment. In doing so, they sometimes put other patients at risk for downright bizarre reasons, according to documents obtained by The Boston Globe, who determined the patient to have "ties to Middle Eastern royalty."During his six-month hospitalization, the VIP received meds from "personal staff" while hospital staff went along with the patient's request to ignore basic infection control practices, such as gowns and gloves, because he said they made him "feel dirty"—an exception that "placed other patients at risk."What happened at the Brigham, however, should surprise zero people; it is how medicine for the wealthy is often practiced across the country. VIP patients, defined primarily as bank accounts with sick humans attached, call the shots, cutting the line for earlier appointments and receiving unnecessary treatments, even in the emergency room, all to fulfill that most noble calling of medicine: developing a "revenue stream."Read more on Tonic.
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