The Waiting Room

The contrast between the American health care system and the Canadian system is starkly depicted in the documentary The Waiting Room. 

The emergency room of the Highland Hospital in Oakland, California is the setting for the majority of the film. This is a public hospital and most of the patients shown in the movie have little or no insurance, are unemployed or underemployed, or have an addiction.

One of the main people depicted in The Waiting Room is a man in his thirties who has come to Highland after being referred there by another clinic. This man was diagnosed with testicular cancer and was about to undergo surgery at the previous facility, only to have been denied because he didn't have any medical insurance. 

If this man lived in Canada he would not have been denied this critical surgery. As it is stated on Health Canada's website, Canadians are entitled to "universal coverage for medically necessary health care services...on the basis of need, rather than the ability to pay." 

Just before he leaves the hospital this man and his partner discuss his financial options with one of the workers. As he stands outside in the hospital parking lot, the man and his girlfriend are at a loss at how to cover his medical costs.

The actual waiting of patients that’s shown in The Waiting Room gives us another contrast between the American and Canadian health care systems. While there is waiting in Canadian emergency rooms and doctor’s offices, we also have a Patient Wait Times Guarantee, which is an “offer of alternative care options (e.g., referral to another physician or health care facility) to patients whose wait times exceed a defined timeframe when medically necessary health services should be provided.” One man in the film had been waiting for three days to see a doctor after being shot in the leg; it’s very unlikely that something like this would occur in Canada.

The hospital staff who deal with the desperate patients are shown to be remarkably composed for the most part. One nurse in particular is candid and sometimes blunt with the patients that she sees. As she takes the blood pressure of a man, she scolds him for "cussing" at someone else in the hospital. When the man protests, the nurse will have none of it and continues to voice her case against the use of foul language.

A doctor who witnesses death for the first time (of a fifteen year-old boy) is unsure how to handle the aftermath when dealing with the police as well as the boy's family. Another more experienced doctor tells him of the need to inform the family in the clearest possible terms, and not to use any euphemisms like the boy has "gone to a better place", but that he has died or is dead.

The scene of the boy dying is particularly moving and "clinical" at the same time. The boy is wheeled into a room while the paramedics are administering CPR; after a couple of minutes it's determined that the boy has no pulse and he cannot be revived. Immediately, hospital workers record the time of death. We see the boy's motionless hand and then his foot and finally an information tag being attached around his ankle.

Much of the video was taken from directly behind someone's head. For example, when a doctor is entering into the operating room, the viewer is taken right along with him, and we see the scene from his perspective. Conversely, there were also close-ups or head shots of people, deftly depicting their emotions as they confront difficult and stressful situations. One instance is of a man trying, unsuccessfully, to get a discount on his pain medication.

The sound was fairly subtle and sombre in feel. And the music did not unnecessarily exaggerate  any of the emotional or dramatic scenes in the film.

Although The Waiting Room shows only one side of the American health care system (the one for the poor and uninsured), it does so objectively and with little judgment. The stories of the people who work at Highland Hospital, as well as the patients who pass through it are told literally through their own words, as there is no narrator in this documentary. People speak freely and we see them in a “natural” or real life setting, giving the film a feel of authenticity.

Sources: “Canada’s Health Care System,” www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/index-eng.php

“Canada’s Health Care System,” http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/pubs/system-regime/2011-hcs-sss/index-eng.php