Oct 30, 2008
Donald Duck, U.S. Navy, Seeks Care; Finds Friend Mickey Pimping Disney
A February issue of the Washington Post carried a piece on the Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s recent decision to ask Disney to train its employees to be more sensitive to patient needs after its recent scandal involving manifestly inadequate care for the wounded soldiers it serves. (That the quality of care for U.S. soldiers on U.S. soil is in question in the first place is a testament to the bureaucratic negligence—the Mickey-Mouseness—of this administration.) The enlistment of Disney is touching but disturbing.
At least one thing occurring here is a commercialization of the already-controversial Patch Adams school of medicine, whose efficacy diminishes with institutionalization. We have not only institutionalization of the Patch Adams school but also, to borrow a corporate solecism, its “monetizing”: making sick people happy now serves simultaneously as a revenue source for Disney—”The Army,” says the Post, “is paying Disney $800,000 to help revamp attitudes at the hospital”—as an advertisement for Disney, and, because advertisements produce revenue, as a potentially self-renewing source of revenue. “A video montage of Disney-related images, ranging from Mary Poppins to Pirates of the Caribbean to Hannah Montana,” the Post contines, “was meant to demonstrate the sheer expanse of the Disney empire” (a statement with which the Post itself announces and reiterates that “sheer expanse”).The expansion of that empire is at least as important here as improving patient care.
That the Army wants to improve its care for our wounded soldiers is clearly a positive development. But the notion that the foundations of good patient care are best imparted by a theme park tour guide (”Donnelly, who started working for Disney in the summer of 1986 as a guide on Disney World’s Jungle Cruise ride, warmed up the crowd. ‘We’re going to kick it off today with what we call “Sizzle,”‘ he said. ‘Here it comes!’”) is boldly obfuscatory. Walter Reed’s teaching its employees Mickey-Mouse “sizzle” (at considerable profit to Mr. Mouse) here stands in for substantively improving care as such. Big mouse ears cover up rather than cure iniquities. You may get substandard care if you find yourself at Walter Reed, but at least you’ll be smiling.