Letter to the editor: Praying for our health care system

I pray for our current health care system.

I pray for a health care system that is more “system” than health care. I pray for administrators and insurance companies behind desks and spreadsheets creating criteria to meet their bottom line.

I pray for the exhausted health care providers on the front lines providing the best patient care possible but are stuck and pulled between “systems” that tie their hands, reduce health care to a check-off list, and promote and encourage competition instead of collaboration.

I especially pray for the patients who are denied continuity of care and a clear path toward recovery because of all of the above. The battle between the health care giants (I use that term loosely) has hurt us all. In a society that screams for diversity, equity and inclusion, I am amazed that this has not been a legal issue for health care.

We need a health care system that is available to and includes all health care providers, all insurances and all patients. Patients need the continuity of their physician, and physicians need the continuity of knowing their patients and their needs to provide the best possible care.

Systems beware: You are not playing with spreadsheets — you are playing with lives. Profit is not the bottom line.

Cheri Yandrick

Unity