Welcome HealthCare Neutral ADR Blog!
(right, new blogger and health care mediator Richard J. Webb)
I was just in the hospital with a friend the other day, standing next to her bed while the "physician in charge of Motion Picture Blue Cross" was copping an attitude in response to her request to see the x-ray of her comminuted multiple ankle fracture.
"Why are you insulted?" she was asking when I entered the room.
My friend was trying to understand why the hospital wanted her moved to a skilled nursing facility before it moved her (and her morphine drip) back to the hospital for surgery. .
Her physician had already told us that he wouldn't advise moving her but that "Motion Picture Blue Cross" was insisting that her hospital stay be terminated. Immediately. I'd been unable to convince him that his patient was seeking medical, not coverage advice. He looked 15 (o.k., I grow old) and sounded cowed by the carrier.
"My husband sues insurance carriers and I represent them so we've got the carrier angle covered," I'd told him. "So please just give us your medical advice."
So I'd just been saying that hospitals "desperately need conflict resolution training!"
And voila!! The HealthCare Neutral ADR Blog appears in the blogging universe care of LexBlog and fellow Straus Institute trained mediator Richard J. Webb, a New Jersey health care neutral.
Here's what Richard says of his blog.
With this post, I start my first blog and what I think is the only blog site devoted to the topic of alternative dispute resolution in the healthcare industry. As stated above on the masthead, I intend to blog at the intersection of ADR and healthcare law.
Welcome to the neighborhood Richard! If Diane Levin's welcome wagon hasn't yet appeared at your front door, you're in for a delightful surprise very soon from the award-winning Online Guide to Mediation. Diane's the O.G. of the mediation 'hood.
Also bringing a list of local eateries, schools, dry cleaning shops and political functionaries will be my ADR blog-posse Geoff Sharp of Mediator Blah Blah; Tammy Lenski of Mediator Tech; Paula Lawhon of San Francisco Mediation Blog; Stephanie West Allen of Brains on Purpose (conflict resolution and neuroscience); Dina Lynch of ADR PracticeBuilder; Gini Nelson of Engaging Conflicts; Kristina Haymes of Mediation Marketing Tips; Christopher Annunziata of the CKA Mediation Blog; and everyone on Mediate.com's "Featured Blogs" page.
We're all looking forward to getting to know you and to learn much much more about health care ADR. And if you're ever in town, I know a nice little hospital that could use your help!
