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Letter to the Editor: ‘Think clearly’ about Hillary Clinton’s lax oversight of classified information

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Kings’ College physician assistant students receive degrees

<p>DALLAS TOWNSHIP &#8212; One bleak day back in the 1960s, Dr. Ted Epperly&#8217;s father called his eldest son, who was 15, and asked him to let his younger siblings know their sister had died on the operating table.</p><p>&#8220;It was one of those powerful, life-defining moments,&#8221; Epperly said, recalling how he responded to the loss of the little girl, a 4-year-old who had suffered from congenital heart defects, by resolving on the spot to become a doctor.</p><p>Perhaps, the teen reasoned, his life&#8217;s work would spare other families the pain he felt at that moment.</p><p>&#8220;It was a clarion call,&#8221; Epperly said. &#8220;Her life ended, but in a way, mine started. Sometimes, out of tragedy, can come good things.&#8221;</p><p>Epperly, who is a family residency doctor in Idaho and clinical professor of family medicine, will deliver the keynote address Nov. 9 at Misericordia University&#8217;s seventh annual Health Care Symposium, which is open to the general public as well as health-care professionals.</p><p>His topic, &#8220;Patient Centered Care: Leadership and Innovation,&#8221; will address ways Epperly believes medical care in the United States can improve.</p><p>&#8220;What we do in this country is, we don&#8217;t focus on keeping people healthy,&#8221; Epperly said in a recent telephone interview. &#8220;It&#8217;s a &#8216;wealth care system&#8217; instead of a health care system, with a lot of people making a lot of money. I don&#8217;t mean to imply there&#8217;s a purposeful lack of empathy but the system is designed to maximize profit from sickness, from illness.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s say you have hypertension and diabetes, and I bill you because I see you,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The incentives are wrong. We need a change to an outcome-based payment structure.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We are bankrupting the nation over health care,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We spend $3 trillion a year on health care and are ranked 37th in the world, just behind Costa Rica.&#8221;</p><p>Adding he would grade the system as &#8220;D-plus,&#8221; Epperly said one reason for the low grade is &#8220;because it&#8217;s such a two-tiered system. The rich can get whatever they want when they want it and the poor live sicker and die younger.&#8221;</p><p>Contributing to the problem is a shortage of primary-care physicians. &#8220;We&#8217;re burning out,&#8221; he said.</p><p>That problem will be eased, he said, as more physician assistants and nurse practitioners share the responsibility by providing &#8220;team-based care.&#8221;</p><p>Ideally, Epperly said, patients would build a long-term relationship with the people in a medical practice.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of like you going to the same hairdresser or mechanic,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If it&#8217;s an established relationship with someone you trust, you feel more empowered and engaged.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Epperly </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_epperly_2009-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Epperly </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Misericordia University sets Health Care Symposium for Nov. 9</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> Health Care Symposium</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 8 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Nov. 9. Keynote Address will be 8:40 a.m.</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Sandy and Marlene Insalaco Hall, Misericordia University</p><p><strong>Registration:</strong> To register for the symposum, go to misericordia.edu/healthevent. To attend just the Keynote Address, email Patti Ross at pross@misericordia.edu</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Misericordia University to hold Health Care Symposium