Making Sense of Medicine: Bridging the Gap Between Doctor Guidelines and Patient Preferences
  • New Book: Making Sense of Medicine
  • Advance Praise
  • About Zack Berger
  • Talking To Your Doctor
    • Talking To Your Doctor: Buy the Book >
      • Praise and Critique
      • Talking to Your Doctor: Resources and Questions for Discussion
      • Excerpt
  • Blog
  • Past Events
  • Sholem's Bias: Medicine and Other Curiosities (A Podcast)

Two planets of healthcare: the patient's view

7/21/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
In a recent article in the New York Times, the prolific Danielle Ofri makes the point that inpatient and outpatient medicine are so different as to be on different planets. She's right, of course. In the hospital, illness is more acute and everything needs to be done faster. More resources are used. Life or death can often hang on every day's decisions. In the clinic, most things are slowly developing, many things get better on their own, and decisions are less weighty.

Or that's what we think. From a patient's point of view, the hospital and the clinic share many similarities:

1. The language can be bewildering.
2. No one spends enough time.
3. Decisions are made without asking you.
4. You are given medications without full information or the chance to say no.
5. People process you without introducing themselves.
6. You are made to dress and undress at the drop of a hat.
7. Everything costs too much, and it's hard to figure out why.
8. There's nowhere to put your kids.
9. If you speak another language, you have to wait for an interpreter - or sometimes you don't get one at all.
10. You are too confused, or sick, to think straight, but sometimes you are expected to share in the decision as if you are fully empowered.
11. You wait and wait for your questions to be answered.

Ofri's point is that, once upon a time, the same doctor would see patients in the hospital and in the office. Nowadays, it's most common for special doctors to see patients in the hospital, and other doctors, of the outpatient variety, to see them outside. The technical requirements of the two environments are two different for one doctor to be able to deliver good care in both.

What does it tell us, though, if the experience of the patient is similar in important ways in the two environments? Does it mean that the right kind of doctor can provide superior care to patients in the hospital and the office? Does it mean the care needs to be reshaped, in equally serious fashion, in both places? What do you think?


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    The author of Talking To Your Doctor and Making Sense of Medicine blogs about the books, shared decision making, doctor-patient communication, and the redeemable imperfections of healthcare.

    Archives

    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.