I see a lot of medical professionals. I have several doctors I see all the time. Because of that, I have some things that end up being requirements. I can't have a doctor that I routinely wait 30 or more minutes after my appointment time, just to be seen. I can't have a doctor, where no one returns your calls, until after the third time you call. I can't have a doctor that does not make me comfortable that they know more than me about what is going on inside of me.
But, in terms of care for my family, I have unrealistically high expectations. Most medical professionals are generally good natured about it. I have tried to be a better person over it. But, I will admit to my part of the issue. I am not reasonable about it, in most cases. It is from the right place in my heart, because I want to protect and care for my family.
The latest chapter has been the recent hospitalization, surgery and treatment of my father. I am not sure that he has been cared for at all times, but I think he has received good treatment. That is the face of the issue that is hardest to describe, and most unfair to those that provide health care. There are also those that provide medical treatment. That seems like a repetitive statement, but the outputs are radically different.
Medical care is made up of thought, personal concern and compassion. Medical treatment is the application of procedures, protocols and processes. Medical care comes from the heart. Medical treatment comes from journals and articles. I never want to be treated again, I want to be cared for. I know everyone does. But we don't do enough, on our part, to make it the reality in the norm.
We put up with treatment, because it is uncomfortable to demand care versus treatment. We have come to expect treatment, because the processing plants that our health care facilities have become reinforce it. The bean counters in the administration of the organization demand it. Try to get any one part of the system to talk to the other part of the system. Ask any doctor what any other doctor put in your record, even if you have personally provided copies, and they will not know. You get treatment, which is just response and remediation of the immediately available data. There is no hope of reviewing any previous data or testing, history has become irrelevant.
Care means a relationship between you and the professional. When I was young, 4 or 5, our doctor knew my name, knew me from my brother, knew my mother's name. I knew the nurse's and the tech's names. I was not an appointment, I was a patient. Important word, in other context it means to be calm while waiting for input. In this context, it means being calm, because there is trust in the input that should be coming. We are none of us, patients any more. We are clients.
Because we have given up on the personal relationship in the health care industry, we should not be afraid to act like the clients we are. If you do not get the services you retained an attorney for, you would demand them, or fire the attorney. If you do not get your house listed by the real estate agent you contracted, you would demand it, or fire them. These actions seem alien to us in the health care world.
We cannot believe that a doctor does not care personally. I won't judge you, even mentally, but has it ever struck you that most doctors treat you like you treat homeless people?. When forced to interact with you personally, they are extremely uncomfortable, dispense just enough to get you to go away quickly and compulsively wash their hands as they run from the room you are in. Bet you never noticed before, but will never miss it again.
It is okay to be a client, and not a patient. I gave up on patient. I am only patient when someone else in my family is with me and they are extremely uncomfortable when I handle things as a business transaction. I do not accept ignorance of my history, nor incomplete diagnosis. I demand to know why I am taking tests, before they are performed. I don't leave unless my questions are answered, not the other way around. I do not accept that because it is insurance money, it is not my money. I work extremely hard to pay for that insurance, therefor, I work extremely hard to pay for that care. If I get treatment instead of care, for what I am paying, you best believe it is going to be complete and of equivalent value. That is, after all, my responsibility in a business transaction. If I do not believe I have received adequate value, I don't leave till I do, or I don't pay.
Did you know that you can call your insurance company and tell them that you did not receive adequate care, provide details and help them refuse to pay the claim. And that, if disputed properly, you do not have to pay for inadequate service. As health care becomes a service industry and less a profession, we have to continue to evolve with it.
I have found doctors that care about me, and provide care for me. If you have not, or do not have the option, as in a hospital, be not afraid. Consider it the same thing as any other transaction and demand the performance of service you expect for the value you are paying. Do not allow the facade of expertise and arcane language to concern you. Every facility you go to has a sign hanging somewhere that says they are dedicated to explaining things in understandable language. This includes having the nurse come in and translate if the doctor struggles with English fluency.
Make them explain why they are injecting anything into you. Make them explain how they know it is not hazardous to you. Make them explain what they expect to see in the test results. Make them show you the results. ASK FOR A COPY. Never worry about what they might be thinking. You are paying them, that means they have to worry about what you are thinking.
I hate car dealerships, but as a whole, we are better able to negotiate and protect our interests with a used car salesman than with a nurse or doctor. You shared your information with them, make sure they give their information to you. If they don't, pretend it is just like the cake you ordered for a special occassion. If it pisses you off enough, figure out how not to pay for it.
Oh, and go to rateadoctor.com and tell the world they paid no attention to you, they treated you like a commodity and not a person. Give the fellow behind you fair warning. It works. Especially if you find the right person to tell you are going to do that. It is almost always the Office Manager, or Care Coordinator. That is the real seat of power in the industry. If you find that person, you will suddenly begin to receive care.
Patient advocates, they are also beneficial partners in gaining care, especially for a loved one. There are requirements to report details and names, when you get the patient advocate involved. They will try to bring five other people to you first, to resolove the situation. But, I suggest you stick to your guns and speak to the advocate. That is the only way to ensure that the event becomes visible to the bean counters. As this is now a service industry, the bean counters are the real power and the real motivation. That is how you make doctors and nurses modify their behavior or find a new home.
It is not out of malice that I suggest this. They have families and lives and issues, just like me. I have compassion for that. I did not make the rules of this engagement, but I guarantee that if those are the rules, I am able to play that out better than they are. I have been doing that in every other part of my life since I was 17. The medical world, this is all new and strange to them.
This is not about good and bad people. This is not even about their desires or wants, as professionals. This is about what they have made the system into, and having to live within the world they created. I don't worry if the waitress is going to be mad or think I am difficult, if they bring me the wrong meal. I don't worry if the sales clerk thinks I am whining if I bring back something that was broken in the box. We, as a nation, have to understand that is how it is in the medical world now. These are good people, who have made rules they do not understand themselves.
I think the rules are unsustainable, because there is nothing being done to train and equip these professionals to deal with their new reality. That is your tactical advantage. Don't make it personal, because they are not. Really, "they" the organization is not taking you personally at all. The individuals may, and those are who I look for. But, the business, it does not care, you are just another number. Best we all realize that up front and change our expectations and our process.
If we don't, we kind of deserve what happens to us as a whole. And, we are stuck with it, at any rate. Might as well make it work as well as you can.
GLYASDI.
Because we have given up on the personal relationship in the health care industry, we should not be afraid to act like the clients we are. If you do not get the services you retained an attorney for, you would demand them, or fire the attorney. If you do not get your house listed by the real estate agent you contracted, you would demand it, or fire them. These actions seem alien to us in the health care world.
We cannot believe that a doctor does not care personally. I won't judge you, even mentally, but has it ever struck you that most doctors treat you like you treat homeless people?. When forced to interact with you personally, they are extremely uncomfortable, dispense just enough to get you to go away quickly and compulsively wash their hands as they run from the room you are in. Bet you never noticed before, but will never miss it again.
It is okay to be a client, and not a patient. I gave up on patient. I am only patient when someone else in my family is with me and they are extremely uncomfortable when I handle things as a business transaction. I do not accept ignorance of my history, nor incomplete diagnosis. I demand to know why I am taking tests, before they are performed. I don't leave unless my questions are answered, not the other way around. I do not accept that because it is insurance money, it is not my money. I work extremely hard to pay for that insurance, therefor, I work extremely hard to pay for that care. If I get treatment instead of care, for what I am paying, you best believe it is going to be complete and of equivalent value. That is, after all, my responsibility in a business transaction. If I do not believe I have received adequate value, I don't leave till I do, or I don't pay.
Did you know that you can call your insurance company and tell them that you did not receive adequate care, provide details and help them refuse to pay the claim. And that, if disputed properly, you do not have to pay for inadequate service. As health care becomes a service industry and less a profession, we have to continue to evolve with it.
I have found doctors that care about me, and provide care for me. If you have not, or do not have the option, as in a hospital, be not afraid. Consider it the same thing as any other transaction and demand the performance of service you expect for the value you are paying. Do not allow the facade of expertise and arcane language to concern you. Every facility you go to has a sign hanging somewhere that says they are dedicated to explaining things in understandable language. This includes having the nurse come in and translate if the doctor struggles with English fluency.
Make them explain why they are injecting anything into you. Make them explain how they know it is not hazardous to you. Make them explain what they expect to see in the test results. Make them show you the results. ASK FOR A COPY. Never worry about what they might be thinking. You are paying them, that means they have to worry about what you are thinking.
I hate car dealerships, but as a whole, we are better able to negotiate and protect our interests with a used car salesman than with a nurse or doctor. You shared your information with them, make sure they give their information to you. If they don't, pretend it is just like the cake you ordered for a special occassion. If it pisses you off enough, figure out how not to pay for it.
Oh, and go to rateadoctor.com and tell the world they paid no attention to you, they treated you like a commodity and not a person. Give the fellow behind you fair warning. It works. Especially if you find the right person to tell you are going to do that. It is almost always the Office Manager, or Care Coordinator. That is the real seat of power in the industry. If you find that person, you will suddenly begin to receive care.
Patient advocates, they are also beneficial partners in gaining care, especially for a loved one. There are requirements to report details and names, when you get the patient advocate involved. They will try to bring five other people to you first, to resolove the situation. But, I suggest you stick to your guns and speak to the advocate. That is the only way to ensure that the event becomes visible to the bean counters. As this is now a service industry, the bean counters are the real power and the real motivation. That is how you make doctors and nurses modify their behavior or find a new home.
It is not out of malice that I suggest this. They have families and lives and issues, just like me. I have compassion for that. I did not make the rules of this engagement, but I guarantee that if those are the rules, I am able to play that out better than they are. I have been doing that in every other part of my life since I was 17. The medical world, this is all new and strange to them.
This is not about good and bad people. This is not even about their desires or wants, as professionals. This is about what they have made the system into, and having to live within the world they created. I don't worry if the waitress is going to be mad or think I am difficult, if they bring me the wrong meal. I don't worry if the sales clerk thinks I am whining if I bring back something that was broken in the box. We, as a nation, have to understand that is how it is in the medical world now. These are good people, who have made rules they do not understand themselves.
I think the rules are unsustainable, because there is nothing being done to train and equip these professionals to deal with their new reality. That is your tactical advantage. Don't make it personal, because they are not. Really, "they" the organization is not taking you personally at all. The individuals may, and those are who I look for. But, the business, it does not care, you are just another number. Best we all realize that up front and change our expectations and our process.
If we don't, we kind of deserve what happens to us as a whole. And, we are stuck with it, at any rate. Might as well make it work as well as you can.
GLYASDI.
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