This Changes Everything #6: How to Improve Our Public Health System

California Groundbreakers

Even though coronavirus infections have sharply dropped, and the CDC is relaxing the rules around masks and mingling, what are we going to do about California’s healthcare system and our shell-shocked hospitals? How can we make sure we prevent so many unnecessary deaths among the people who cook our food, clean our houses, take care of our kids and do all the essential work we rely upon them for? Join us as we talk with Elaine Batchlor, M.D. -- or "Dr. B" for short -- the CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, which was the Ground Zero of COVID deaths in California during those dark days last winter. She’ll tell us what went wrong last year and why, and what needs to happen now so we can address California’s major healthcare challenges and do better next time. PODCAST PLAY BY PLAY * O to 4:20 min - Intro to California Groundbreakers, this episode and "Dr. B" * 4:20 min - The status report for California hospitals today, where they stand in the COVID-19 battle, and getting people vaccinated * 7:30 min - What this pandemic is teaching us about California's public health system * 11:30 min - Where the building blocks -- and the money -- should be focused for creating a successful public health system, and what Dr. Batchlor is doing about this at her own hospital * 21:30 - Why hospitals in wealthy areas leave hospitals like Dr. Batchlor's in the lurch when they're overwhelmed with patients, even during a pandemic * 26:40 min - How hard it will be to keep burnt-out healthcare workers on the job, and get young people into the medical field, after this grueling year * 30:30 min - What can we Californians do to build a better public healthcare system? RESOURCE GUIDE * New York Times article on the novel treatment MLK Jr. Community Hospital is now offering the patients it treated for COVID-19 - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/01/us/coronavirus-hospitals-recovery.html * Medscape article on Dr. Batchlor and how she turned a hospital nicknamed "Killer King" into a highly rated healthcare site in Los Angeles - https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/948712