Intelligent Healthcare Information Integration 3/28/09

The E-Generation

Get serious, people.

Turn off the friggin’ light switch. Change the daggone toilet paper roll … preferably, recycle the cardboard, too. Don’t throw your trash on my street … or anybody else’s.

And, while you’re at it, let’s kill off this virulent infestation of psyche that permits us to ignore the needs of others and focus only on the “Entitled Generation” and its abhorrent manifestations.

E-Generation examples:

• Corporate execs of failed or failing firms who have the audacity to accept bonuses for ineptitude. (Hey, man, it’s in my contract!)
• Sports stars who make 200 TIMES as much as the firefighter who rescues even family pets from burning homes or the EMT who daily helps obliterated people not feel so obliterated. (My agent says I’m worth it, man!)
• Medicaid and Medicare recipients who have no incentive, financial or otherwise, to make smart healthcare decisions. (Runny nose? Let’s go the ER. There’s an emergency. Don’t feel like getting up yet? Blow off the doctor’s appointment; it doesn’t cost us anything if we do. Who cares if they waste the doctor’s and their staff’s time and prevent other patients from getting a timely appointment?)
• Health insurance companies who have no interest in “insuring” people’s health, only healthy corporate profits margins. (Health insurance as a “benefit?” Seems more a burden these days.)
• EHRs, PHRs, HIEs, RHIOs, etc. too big from which to walk away yet with so many “functions” that they don’t function well for anyone. (Let’s throw more money into poorly designed gigundo systems because… well… just because they already ‘are,’ they’re some big companies, and there’s money being made. Where’s disruptive innovation when you need it?)

Me? I’m sick of the “what’s in it for me”-ness of modern America. Obama’s right, it can’t be just the leader, or leaders, who are going to right this listing ship. We all need to get serious and do the right things. Make better choices. Don’t do stuff just because “that’s how it’s always been done.” (God, I despise that one!)

Most people, I believe, have a fair idea of what’s right and what’s not. But, most choices are not made from an “Is it right?” perspective. Most moment-to-moment choices seem based upon expediency, greed, or entitlement. The impossibly large welfare system and the failures of the banking and home mortgage markets blossomed from the very same seed: entitlement. And, as the seed has a rotten core, so, too, the blossom reeks.

This isn’t an exclusive generation, by the way. Baby boomers, X-geners, Me-genites, et al – we are all apart of the E-Gen. It’s a generational association which is non-exclusive, crossing all age groups. It knows no socioeconomic or religious bounds. It doesn’t preclude gays, straights, or trannies. It is one of the most all-encompassing groups ever. Yet, it should be an extreme embarrassment every time any of us pays our E-Gen dues.

How much does it really take away from your precious TV or Twitter time to put the cap back on the toothpaste, pick up the canvas grocery bags on the way to the store, or give someone a meaningful thank you? Maybe next you could actually vote. Or volunteer. It’s a start. (And, you can Tweet about it!)

Stop grabbing and start giving.

Dr. Gregg Alexander is a grunt-in-the-trenches pediatrician and geek. His personal manifesto home page…er..blog…yeh, that’s it, his blog – and he – can be reached through http://madisonpediatric.com or doc@madisonpediatric.com.