Reflecting on the blogs, Overcoming Fear How Faith Parts the Waters Part 1 and Part 2, I wondered if those lessons apply to the concerns below, what do you think?

Recently, a friend of mine, who has worked for a Christian hospital for over 30 years, had a cardiac event that required admission and surgery at the hospital where he works. In the aftermath of his hospitalization, he emailed me the following:

Overall, the procedure was very successful. It only lasted 3 hours. The doctor was very kind and seemed very competent. But his piece was the high point of the whole ordeal.

My procedure was done at a Christian hospital. Our mission is to “Extend the Healing Ministry of Christ.” I have been working at this hospital for 30 years. I have had an uncomfortable relationship with that mission statement throughout that time because I struggle to see the connection between the standard allopathic philosophy used by us in treatment and the health message that I have been taught is “the right hand of the gospel.”

My surgery was on Wednesday, I was discharged on Sunday, and all of my clinical providers were very impressed with my amazing progress saying that I had been a fantastic patient. I think that was because, even though I have not done a great job fully understanding and implementing the design laws relating to our physical health, I have avoided some of the grosser habits and mistakes that quickly damage and destroy health. 

On the other hand, the care that I was given, that to me should have been a shining example of the difference between the way the world lives without God, and the way to live when operating under design law, seemed to be completely unenlightening. I mean that if a non-Christian were a patient at this hospital, they would never get an inkling that we have been taught a completely different way to live life than the world. 

The only time I saw a chaplain was during pre-op when the nurses needed someone to witness my Advance Directives. They called a chaplain to do that, but he never spoke to me except after he had signed as a witness to say, “I’ll get out of your way.” During my 4-day stay in the hospital, no one ever asked me if they could pray with me, no one offered any thoughts, or an invitation to think about design, or any other spiritual connection to what was happening to me physically!

The food was, in a word, horrible. I was placed on a 60 to 75 g low carb, low salt, low fat diet. My first meal was some boiled broccoli, mashed potatoes with gravy, and a cooked chicken breast. I told them that I was a vegetarian. That never had any effect. I told them each day that I was a vegetarian, and they always acknowledged that I wanted a change, but nothing ever happened. I was offered chicken at every meal except breakfast. That pattern of acting as if what I wanted made a difference, yet nothing ever changing was pervasive throughout my stay. 

It happened with my questions regarding chemical and prescription solutions when I wanted help investigating more naturopathic solutions. Everyone was always anxious to know how I would like to be cared for, but it never seemed to have any effect on their protocols. 

As I read about his experience, I did consider that this could have been a one-off aberrancy, that every other patient at this hospital had a ministry team actively working with them to bring Jesus into their lives, that every other patient’s requests and desires were not only heard but also implemented in an individualized treatment plan. However, I suspect this is not the case.

In fact, I think it is much more likely that my friend’s experience is representative of the majority of treatment and its delivery not only at this Christian hospital but also nationwide. Why do I think this? And, if this is, in fact, occurring, how could Christian healthcare systems become functionally no different from non-Christian hospitals?

Because of the corporatization of healthcare in America. Our healthcare system is captured by the “health-delivery industrial complex”—big pharma, big insurance, big hospital systems, big medical technology and equipment services—which is all big business. It is no longer the outworking of Christian principles as practiced by compassionate, Christ-centered healthcare workers who are actively seeking to be like Jesus and not only healing the body but leading suffering souls to eternal healing in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Specifically, what has happened is that corporate healthcare systems must maintain financial solvency (which is not a bad thing; it is a reality) in order to stay in business and deliver care. However, financial reimbursement is directly tied to meeting various regulations, protocols, industry standards, “best-practice” guidelines, and other industry requirements that, if not met, will result in denial of payment. But the various standards, guidelines, and “best practices” are too often influenced, if not directly written, by those from the big industries (or receiving stipends, consulting fees, or grants from the big industries) to ensure that their products and services are utilized as the standards in order to continue the flow of profits.

Therefore, the administrations of these Christian hospital systems, with all good intentions and righteous motivation, under the umbrella of seeking to be the compassionate healing hands of Jesus, train their people on meeting the “standards,” fulfilling the “regulatory requirements,” and following the “protocols.” But these protocols are written by those who do not prioritize Jesus but instead prioritize commercial industry and the profit motive and, therefore, entwine practices that often conflict with the principles of Christ and the design laws of health.

One example of how a good and “righteous” standard gets undermined by the captured system is the standard of “individualized care.” Individualized care is proclaimed and written as a standard into most healthcare systems, and the staff are trained to ask the patient their preferences, goals, desires, and respond to the patient with empathy, reassuring them that they are heard. But then the patient’s desires and preferences are subordinated to the “standards, protocols, regulations, and guidelines” written by the industry, and these must be followed to ensure that the institution receives reimbursement and to protect it from liability if a bad outcome occurs.

If a healthcare institute implements a patient preference that is contrary to industry standards, contrary to the “consensus statement” or the “treatment guidelines,” even if there is medical evidence in the published scientific literature to support the patient’s request, then that opens up the institute to the potential denial of reimbursement and also being sued if the patient has a bad outcome—and worse, potential loss of license and ability to practice.

Thus, patient preferences, even when they might be objectively better than the protocol, will often not be implemented. Examples include the dietary choices of my friend who wanted a vegetarian meal but was given chicken instead, all the while being reassured by staff that his preferences were important, his desires were heard, and his care was individualized.

We saw this same problem during COVID-19 when many hospitalized patients wanted Ivermectin as part of their treatment. Many institutions resisted, and some patients were able to receive this treatment only by getting an attorney to sue and receiving a court order to provide it. Instead, these hospitals followed their guidelines that delivered experimental treatments that had objectively proven higher risk of harm, such as Remdesivir, because that was the “protocol.”

The training of the hospital staff to follow the protocols, standards, and guidelines of the industry indoctrinate them to believe that what they are doing is the right thing to do because it is in harmony with written policy, procedure, regulations, and standards, regardless of whether it is objectively in the best interest of a specific patient.

I doubt that any of the individuals my friend encountered realized they themselves had been captured. They responded to my friend with kind words because they are generally kind people seeking to help others, but the options they had to consider in treating my friend were restricted and restrained by the protocols, policies, procedures, and standards of their institution, which are essentially the same standards across the healthcare delivery industry—thus, Christian and non-Christian hospitals ultimately practice almost identical treatment through this corporatization of medicine. So, sadly, with clear consciences, the misinformed and indoctrinated staff provide the care that is perfectly in accord with industry standards but may not actually be best for every individual patient.

Another example is in the treatment of depression; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a proven drug-free treatment for depression, cleared by the FDA in 2008. Yet, most protocols require patients to first be treated with antidepressant medications and fail those medications before approval for TMS is granted. Even though TMS has fewer risks and side effects, most patients are obstructed by various protocols and policies from pursuing TMS as a first-line treatment. Why? Because the healthcare system is captured by big pharma, which influences the policies, regulations, and protocols in order to favor their treatments over non-pharmaceutical treatments.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to free doctors and hospitals from the constraints of the industry and allow them to practice in harmony with the principles of health, to follow scientific evidence that is demonstrated in studies even before it becomes regulated protocol and, thereby, deliver truly individualized care, integrating holistic practices that heal the entire person, mind, body, and spirit—inviting Jesus into every encounter?

*****

After sharing a preview of this blog with my colleague Karl Benzio, M.D., the psychiatrist who founded Honey Lake Clinic (HLC), he responded with the following:

Yep—not just inviting Jesus into the treatment process, but actually giving Him credit for the protocols He designed and is involved in delivering.

I would put forth that it isn’t corporate or industrialization of the healthcare system as much as it is the timidity of Christians to boldly proclaim and implement biblical healing principles in their space. As I did with HLC, it is easy to work within corporate guidelines to be able to overtly verbalize and practically deliver biblically based services that powerfully impact and heal severely struggling people.

Administrators, boards, and healthcare leaders who say they are Christian need to take that mantle and realize they are in full-time ministry and don’t have to be a pastor or missionary to be in full-time ministry. These Christian leaders need to steward the position that God entrusted to them and vocally and demonstratively infuse the gospel and the Bible’s healing principles in whatever healthcare spaces they can. That is the biggest deficit and hindrance. Since Christians are being negligent, the void is filled with the other entities you cite to determine agendas and protocols.

We can be a leader in modeling and teaching that process to other systems and catalyze opportunities to push them deeper into this healing ministry space.

Do you think Dr. Benzio is correct? Do you think that Christian healthcare organizations and leaders have somehow forgotten that they are in ministry and have functionally separated the delivery of healthcare from the delivery of the gospel? Do you think Christian hospital systems should prioritize the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ and become overtly Christian in every phase of their healthcare delivery?

Jesus said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26 NIV84). Couldn’t we rightly ask, “What good will we do to help a man recover his health, yet he forfeits his soul?” Can a healthcare system that is Christian be faithful to Jesus without being gospel workers, without prioritizing the saving of souls, without overtly integrating biblical truths and principles throughout their entire system, programs, protocols, and practices? Or are they, rather than Christian, merely Christian-friendly?