Well, perhaps in the same paragraph at least. In my last column, primarily focused on Veteran’s Day, I mentioned in the post-script that we were heading out to Colorado to meet our five-week old first grandchild, Cooper Allen Wicken. Well, I can tell you that given this column is hitting the streets on the day before Thanksgiving, my wife and I have an added reason to be thankful this holiday season. He is a mighty fine young man in our estimation, although all you grandparents out there know that there is a great deal of bias inherent in grandparents’ efforts at objectivity when assessing their grandchildren.

I mention our trip to that Rocky Mountain state only because it was delayed a couple of days when we received an invitation to an event here in Maine that was not to be missed. It was an event that had a lot to do with health care… close to 80 years of combined service to patient care to be exact.

And, it was an event that reminded me that something very important seems to be ignored in the health care reform debates that seem to be getting less and less about healthcare in this country, and more and more about scoring political points, much to the detriment of really improving this broken system in the interest of the health and economic needs of all Americans.

Two fine physical therapists were retiring this fall from their impressive and long careers at Maine Medical Center. Both were already on the Maine Med PT staff when I arrived, as a newly minted physical therapist fresh out of graduate school in 1974. Sarah (Sally) Dalton, PT and Meredith Elcome PT were there already, demonstrating the important fine art of caring to colleagues and patients alike. This fine art is best learned during day-to-day care-giving, and Sally and Meredith continued their exemplary delivery of those skills into the autumn of 2009.

About 130 colleagues and friends were there at the wonderful event in Portland to honor Meredith and Sally. I had the distinct privilege to direct the Physical Therapy Division at MMC for about 17 years in the ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s that had many terrific care-givers, as essentially every clinical area in that busy medical center.

Throughout that wonderful evening, again and again the thought recurred, while reviewing great memories, and getting personal updates, with many of my old staff who impressed me on a daily basis from 1974 to 1991, that Americans need to remember that while the right and left continue to debate the healthcare reform bills before both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, outstanding health professionals continue to deliver their skilled and caring services to everyone who shows up at the doors of their respective practices, hospitals, and clinics with a need for any of a broad spectrum of health services.

As noted above, I have been a health professional for decades —since 1974. And in that time, I have worked not only in that large and complex medical center as well doing injury prevention and injury management consulting in countless workplaces across the country from west Texas to eastern Maine, and in other settings including my professional organization’s headquarters in the Washington DC area, and currently doing outpatient orthopedics for Franklin

Memorial Hospital as part of the Rangeley Region Physical Rehabilitation services in a beautiful facility overlooking Rangeley Lake.

I have, to say the least, seen many changes in the delivery of, and the payment for, health care over those years, and in those settings. And I have been following closely the current efforts to once again try to bring accessibility to health services for all Americans, without forcing them into bankruptcy because of a lack of a decent insurance plan. The misinformation and political posturing have disgusted me, quite frankly.

There is much I could say about the current debates and endless, and sometimes mindless, rhetoric flying around Washington. I won’t burden you with all my thoughts on this important topic. Suffice to say, I firmly believe that good healthcare services should be, and could be, affordably available to every American.

The key is a system that focuses limited resources on preventive, health-maintaining efforts, where patients and health professionals all share in the inherent responsibilities that entails, and not the current fee-for-service system that focuses, out of necessity, too often on expensively correcting lifestyle-related disease processes with the latest technologies.

Ask any thoughtful health professional, and they will tell you the same. However, with all the special interests associated with this huge and growing healthcare industry, it is far from easy to improve. Most of them will tell you that a national health insurance approach, much like the Medicare system available to those over 65 years of age, is the answer. Health care should be seen as a right for all Americans and not a privilege for those who have the means, or the good fortune of an affordable insurance policy.

The current healthcare financing system is a national embarrassment, quite frankly. We as a country can, and should, do much better. Getting it done, given all the influential special interests and entrenched profiteers is the hard part, and it unfortunately seems to be getting harder to create a meaningful solution.

In the meantime, during this Thanksgiving season, and throughout the year for that matter, we should all take a moment or two and think of the fine healthcare professionals who continue to deliver their services in a caring, people-focused manner, despite the convoluted payment systems that often detract from their otherwise extremely satisfying, important, and purposeful work.

“We need to write, otherwise nobody will know who we are,” Garrison Keillor.

Per usual, your thoughts and comments are welcome. You can send me an email at allenwicken@yahoo.com. Better yet, consider sending a heartfelt handwritten thank-you note to anyone… perhaps a caring friend, neighbor or family member who has given you at least one of the many good reasons to again be thankful this holiday season.