Attached.

Running head: ESCAPE FIRE

1

Escape Fire
Name
Institution

ESCAPE FIRE

2
Escape Fire

Define what “Escape Fire” means in the context of the movie and the importance in
preparing you to be a health care manager. Provide specific examples.
Escape Fire is a film on the flaws that are in the healthcare system in the United States.
These flaws are brought to attention by the directors Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke in
conjunction with other medical experts who share their experiences and the deficiencies that they
face in the industry. Primarily, the film highlights the system’s inadequacies such as the
understaffing which makes physician to inadequate time with the patients. Further, issues such as
the approach to treatment where the focus is mainly to prescribe medicine without a holistic
approach to the patient’s health are outlined. The status quo of the healthcare system is
highlighted where the system is focused on profits rather than the patients. The spending of the
American people on healthcare is also discussed in the film to highlight how the system is
making money with the view of care from a productivity point of view.
Escape fire is about getting away from the faulty system and establishing a more effective
system based on focusing on the health of the public rather than “the management of diseases as
Dr. Andrew Weil calls it” (Heineman and Froemke, 2012). The terms “escape fire,” therefore,
are a way of sensitization where the public is made aware of the faulty system and how it works.
It outlines the inadequacies using stories from patients and physicians alike. For instance, the
story on the use of pills in the military brings to attention the social discussion of the link
between opioid use and the suicide cases in the defense forces. Essentially, real-life stories of
people who took up to 64 pills a day because they were prescribed to them bring to life the
problems experienced by different people in the healthcare system.

ESCAPE FIRE

3

Furthermore, the movie focuses on innovative means of changing the approach in the
system. Therefore, other than complaining about the current system and focusing on what it does
wrong, the physicians featured in the film voice their propositions. For instance, Dr. Weil
presents his program where he sensitizes physicians on different approaches to the healthcare
system and what could be effective in dealing with different situations. Essentially, the terms
‘escape fire’ show how there is an urgent need to move away from the current system that
involves too much spending on the management of diseases through prescriptions and into
another system that cares for the patients and provides adequate health management.
How would you, as the health care administrator, address the issues of decreased revenue
faced by Dr. Martin and the other physicians in the group practice?
Healthcare administration faces difficulties in balancing between care and the costs to
ensure sustainability. In the case of the group practice involving Dr. Erin Martin, the same
dilemma is experienced whereby government cuts may force the clinicians to reduce the time
they spend with their patients and focus on the productivity which literally returns their practice
to the general ‘fire’ that they tried to escape by establishing it. Therefore, these constraints may
provide a challenge of financing the practice and take away the essence of forming a group
practice that is different from the rest of the system which appears faulty and broken. To address
this problem, one could increase the charges for the patients and design interventions that allow
cost containment in the system.
The first step would be to initiate a pay-out-of-pocket initiative to cost share with the
medical insurance costs. A pay-out-of-pocket approach is an approach whereby patients would
be given a ceiling on spending in their insurance while the rest would be paid out of their
pockets. Essentially, according to Baicker and Goldman (2011), the money is readily available

ESCAPE FIRE

4

for the healthcare practitioners to put to use. It would reduce the long waiting for reimbursements
but support Dr. Martin’s practice in the way the physicians designed it to be. However, in
implementing this policy, ethical considerations must be put into place. First, the setting of the
costs that the patients would be paying per visit would require regulation and the attention of
healthcare regulators to ensure ethical practice. Further, the affordability of care would be
checked to ensure that the patients get the best care at affordable rates. The out-of-pocket
payments would be the trade-off for patient-focused quality care provided by the practice.
The holistic approach to healthcare by Dr. Erin Martin and her colleagues allowed them
to focus on the patients rather than the system. However, with documentaries like the film
created on the practice, the healthcare manager can establish a system of support that allows the
practice to continue efficiently even with the reduced government funding. First, one could
integrate more partners who invest in the healthcare practice and boost its revenue. The catch,
here, is the fact that some of the investors may be focused on the financial returns and therefore,
may pressure the practitioners to increase their productivity. The best way to bring people who
care about healthcare onboard is to create a trust fund where the practitioners can use the money
to boost the practice.
Describe why this movie was important for patients with diabetes. As a health care
manager, what could you have done to help these patients? Provide specific examples.
Healthcare management for people with chronic illnesses requires a holistic approach
whereby the health of the patient is monitored and managed appropriately as opposed to
managing only the disease. This is especially true for patients with diabetes who need continued
care whereby they can access alternative sources of care other than the prescription pills that
merely control their blood glucose. For a patient with diabetes, the illness is a lifestyle illness and

ESCAPE FIRE

5

it does not stop at taking insulin or pills that regulate the blood glucose as seen in the system of
healthcare that exists in the U.S today. Therefore, the film is extremely important for such
patients because it addresses the fundamental issues that these patients face on a daily basis.
First and foremost, the film speaks about p...