Bureaucracy 101 – Troutbirder rant part one

Perhaps a few of these bureaucratic insights came from a college course in sociology I took at the University of Minnesota. However, most of my  bureaucratic applications developed from experiences gained as a result f Mrs. T’s dementia. Specifically, involving a very large clinic and hospital  and secondly a memory care unit. The first ones motto is the patient comes first and the second one who provides assurance that they will keep your loved one safe in their memory care facility.

1.       Bureaucracies are ancient. Possibly going back to the Roman legions who fairly consistently beat my Germanic tribal kinsman. That was simply because they had levels of command and assigned tasks at each level. In a word, the German tribesmen individually may have been fiercer warriors. But they were not organized nor well trained as in professionals.

2.       The most ancient current bureaucracy is likely the Roman Catholic Church. It has had an autocratic chain of command, probably since the first pope took up the mantle of St. Peter.

3.       Bureaucracies today are the people machines that makes modern industrial civilization possible. They organize people in hierarchies  of jobs and authority. Without them we would probably be back in the dark ages. And our wars would be much less devastating.

4.       Bureaucracies can serve many purposes as governing bodies, corporations, churches, armies, and most things in between. Bureaucracies also have many goals commensurate with their purposes. To save souls, to fight wars, to create wealth, to help the poor, to fight disease and so on endlessly

5.       Again bureaucracies often have worthy goals but sometimes they forget them and fall astray. A few examples include protecting their upper management, protecting the institutions reputation, and most frequently their bottom line profit regardless of anything else. Their protocols or rules  often provide structure and clarification throughout the system. As the organization increases in size so do the rules. Laws passed by governments add to the mix. These may serve an important and useful purpose in protecting the common welfare of citizens. This is also where lawyers play a large protecting role for bureaucracies. Their job protect bureaucracy itself. That is to say whether its goals might be open or closed legitimate or otherwise. Often the rules are what  used to be called “red tape”.Red tape is an idiom that refers to excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making. It is usually applied to governments, corporations, and other large organizations In medically related institutions the word protocol often comes up.

6.       Well, I’m sure by this time you figured out that I have an ax to grind. Plainly it involves some personal examples involving Mrs. T’s safety and care. I’ll begin by noting very seriously that she has in large measure been treated well by large numbers of caring compassionate and professional people. She has beaten two different kinds of cancer in the last two decades and my own life was saved after a near death experience from a drug now banished by the FDA. In a similar manner, I also have a very high opinion of the lawyers who took on my case against  the biggest of the big Pharmas.

Next: The day they wouldn’t  admit Mrs. T into the emergency room.

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