Up here on the 8th floor of the Pathology Department of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital rest many uneasy patients, both with curable conditions and terminal illnesses. In the United States, staying in the hospital with a terminal illness is highly discouraged, as insurance companies will only cover hospice care under these conditions.
The Taiwanese health care system not only enables patients to stay in the hospital for as long as they are symptomatic, but inadvertently encourages them to stay as well. Dr. Chang reports that insurance companies pay better for most medications if the patient is occupying a bed in hospital. It is also difficult to send patients home when pamphlets for very specific oncologic conditions don’t exist in Mandarin. How are these patients supposed to understand every nuance of their very specific conditions and medications if written information doesn’t exist? Dr. Chang sure doesn’t have time to tell them all of this information. If a patient keeps him for five minutes, that’s already pushing it!
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