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Ethically Challenged: Private Equity Storms US Health Care

02/28/2024
Sadie Davenport

Title: Ethically Challenged: Private Equity Storms US Health Care.

Author: Laura Katz Olson.

Publication info: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2022. 

Location: Academic eBook Collection. 

Description: Revealing the dark truth about the impact of predatory private equity firms on American health care.Won Gold from the Axiom Book Award in the Category of Business Ethics, the Benjamin Franklin Awards by the Independent Book Publishers Association and the North American Book Award in the Catergory of Business Finance, Finalist of the American Book Fest Best Book Social Change and Current Events by the American Book FestPrivate equity (PE) firms pervade all aspects of our modern lives. Unlike other corporations, which generally manufacture products or provide services, they leverage considerable debt and other people's money to buy and sell businesses with the sole aim of earning supersized profits in the shortest time possible. With a voracious appetite and trillions of dollars at its disposal, the private equity industry is now buying everything from your opioid treatment center to that helicopter that helps swoop you up from a car crash site. It may even control how and when you can get your kidney dialysis. In Ethically Challenged, Laura Katz Olson describes how PE firms are gobbling up physician and dental practices; home care and hospice agencies; substance abuse, eating disorder, and autism services; urgent care facilities; and emergency medical transportation. With a sharp eye on cost and quality of care, Olson investigates the PE industry's impact on these essential services. She explains how PE firms pile up massive debt on their investment targets and how they bleed these enterprises with assorted fees and dividends for themselves. Throughout, she argues that public pension funds, which provide the preponderance of equity for PE buyouts, tend to ignore the pesky fact that their money may be undermining the very health care system their workers and retirees rely on.Weaving together insights from interviews with business owners and experts, newspaper articles, purchased data sets, and industry publications, Olson offers a unique perspective and appreciation of the significance of PE investments in health care. The first book to comprehensively address private equity and health care, Ethically Challenged raises the curtain on an industry notorious for its secrecy, exposing the nefarious side of its maneuvers.

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Title: On the Ground After September 11: Mental Health Responses and Practical Knowledge Gained.

Publication info: By Yael Danieli & Robert L Dingman. Routledge, 2014.

Location: Academic eBook Collection.

Description: A heartfelt collection of extraordinary first-person accounts that delve into every level of the experience of 9/11Out of the infamy of 9/11 and its aftermath people rose up with courage and determination to meet formidable challenges. On the Ground After September 11: Mental Health Responses and Practical Lessons Gained is a stirring compilation of over a hundred personal and professional first-hand accounts of the entire experience, from the moment the first plane slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, to the months mental health professionals worked to ease the pain and trauma of others even while they themselves were traumatized. This remarkable chronicle reveals the breadth and depth of human need and courage along with the practical organizational considerations encountered in the responses to terrorist attacks. The goal of any terrorist act is to instill psychosocial damage to a society to effect change. On the Ground After September 11 provides deep insight into the damage the attack had on our own society, the failures and victories within our response systems, and the path of healing that mental health workers need to travel to be of service to their clients. Personal accounts written by the professionals and public figures involved reveal the broad range of responses to this traumatic event and illuminate how mental health services can most effectively be delivered. Through the benefit of hindsight, recommendations are described for ways to better finance assistance, adapt the training of mental health professionals, and modify organizations'response to the needs of victims in this type of event.

 

Title: September 11: Trauma and Human Bonds

Publication info: By Yael Danieli & Robert L Dingman. Routledge, 2014.

Location: Academic eBook Collection.

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Title: Toxoplasma Gondii: Prevalence and Role in Health and Disease.

Author: Erica dos Santos Martins Duarte.

Publication info: New York: Nova Medicine and Health. 2022. 

Location: Academic eBook Collection. 

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Sadie Davenport
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Left: A portrait of Louis Braille. 

Right: The Braille alphabet.

Louis Braille was accidentally blinded in both eyes after an accident in his father's shop when he was three years old. He attended the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in France, where he excelled in his school work and started creating a new communication system for the blind and visually impaired. At the time, there were some resources for the visually impaired that made reading possible, including those made by Valentin Haüy, the founder of Louis Braille's school. However, these resources did not make writing and unspoken communication possible. These resources were also fragile, incredibly large and heavy (especially for youth), and expensive.  

By the age of fifteen, Louis Braille created the communication system that we know as Braille. He spent most of his life improving this system. Initially, he used both dots and dashes, but eliminated the dashes for simplicity. A passionate musician himself, Braille later added music symbols and syntax. 

Instructors and staff at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth effectively banned the use of Braille until 1854, two years after Louis Braille's death. Slowly, Braille was used throughout France, then Europe, and by 1916, the United States. It has since been improved and adapted to new technology, allowing the visually impaired to browse the Internet, complete homework and professional tasks, use computer software applications, and more. 

January 4th is celebrated as World Braille Day (for Louis Braille's birthday). 

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