Religion and Hospitals

[daenku32]

Man, good thing I use secular hospitals

If they won't accept my Religion in the field for "Religion", they'll be getting a law suit.

 

[EvilYeti]

The "religious affiliation" slot on hospital admission forms is generally an option offered merely as a convenience for patients and their families. As it happens, though, Yeti's speculation about concern over legal liability is eminently sensible. I had a similar reflection as soon as I read jj's post, and over the course of my career in law I've gotten pretty good at detecting the hidden hand of litigation (or the threat thereof) as an influence on institutional behavior.

Thanks for the support, I appreciate it, especially from an attorney. You must be one of the good ones!

I spent a harrowing year doing computer consulting for attorneys in New Jersey and developed a pretty good sense of their "modus operandi" in the process. I see the handiwork of our litigation-happy culture everywhere I go.

My point is not to belittle jj (well, maybe just a bit ) but to point out that this is really not a religious issue, but a legal one. It's a very real, very serious problem and one I think is important to be aware of.

Crooked lawyers are a much bigger threat to America than pushy bible-bangers could ever hope to be. They love to smokescreen their true motives, we as skeptics should try our best to expose them.

 

[jj]

but to point out that this is really not a religious issue, but a legal one. It's a very real, very serious problem and one I think is important to be aware of.

It's certainly serious if somebody strokes out while trying to dream up a religious affiliation.

I don't believe the legal excuse for a SECOND. If it were only that, the front-desk clerk wouldn't have launched into the "it's for the sake of your soul" horse baloney.

 

[Mel]

For reasons I don't understand, fundamentalists are afraid to be around people that think differently. I didn't know atheists were also. I thought atheists were more self assured and not hung up on the idea of conforming.

If this bothers and you'd like to do more than vent, why not write a letter to the hospital and lodge a formal complaint? Being belligerent towards the people in admissions does not cause change in policy, stating your case to the right people has a better chance of success.

 

[jj]

For reasons I don't understand, fundamentalists are afraid to be around people that think differently. I didn't know atheists were also. I thought atheists were more self assured and not hung up on the idea of conforming.
Is there a reason you think it's necessary to say this? Somehow, this personal attack, which is either ignorant or dishonest, seems to be simply an anti-atheist bit of propaganda, given as it tosses about a bunch of stereotypes and a few straw men.

I guess you don't care, then, at all, about the lives of atheists. Why should somebody have to MAKE SOMETHING UP when they are passing out?

Explain this to me, Mel, why should I have to engage in more cognitive effort when I'm barely able to do any, just because a clerk can't accept the truth? (Given the clerk and her minister's behavior, I can't accept the legal excuse for this one.)

If this bothers and you'd like to do more than vent, why not write a letter to the hospital and lodge a formal complaint? Being belligerent towards the people in admissions does not cause change in policy, stating your case to the right people has a better chance of success.

If you'd bother to read the thread, you'd know that I did quite a bit more than that, JUST NOT WHILE I WAS IN THE PROCESS OF ENTERING THE HOSPITAL AS AN EMERGENCY PATIENT. Why do you indicate an untruth?

You would have read, if you'd actually READ this thread, that with the help of the Jewish religions person (who was entirely civil, as was the Catholic chaplain), I got the "patient resource person" to send up a social worker, I politely opened admissions a new orifice in the process, explained about the moron who camped and tried to threaten me with damnation (btw, he also tried to imply that I wasn't going to get better until I choked down his crap) if I wouldn't plead with him for my immortal soul.

Now, don't start out on how this was threatening, it wasn't threatening, it was outright annoying. And he wouldn't leave, and I wasn't strong enough to escort him to the door at the time.

In any case, I dragged the patient rights person through a complaint review, etc, etc. And I already said that, SO WHY DID YOU JUST SUGGEST OTHERWISE?

WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?

 

[DrBenway]

jj,

I believe you were appropriately grumpy. As a fellow not-particularly-religious person, I stand beside you in the good fight.