 |
|
|
|
|
Listening Matters
|
|
|
|
Location: Blogs Doctor Kara's Blog |
 |
| Posted by: Kara Clapp |
4/16/2010 |
| Lately I’ve been thinking about healthcare culture and public attitudes toward healthcare. When I first started Doctor Kara PC, I was very confident that my tagline “Affordable Healthcare without the Wait” would resonate with the public. I also believed that my clinic would be wildly successful with my brilliant courage to do the right thing. Why? Because I read the research that said people were tired of (a) being treated impersonally, (b) waiting for long periods of time in waiting rooms, and (c) who believed that healthcare is too expensive. After nearly 4 years, I admit that I have learned that people don’t think they wait too long, can afford healthcare at urgent care clinics at the last minute, and don’t care about impersonal treatment, and act as this bad service is great care and worth the money spent.
I am old enough to remember the glory days of primary care practice AKA Marcus Welby, MD style. Dr. Max, our family physician most of my childhood, was a solo practice generalist. Laugh if you will, but Marcus Welby MD is an epiphany moment for me. Based on the phone calls that are received at my office, I have come to understand that most people are poor shoppers for healthcare. Sorry the truth is ugly, but I’m saying it nonetheless. For the last 4 years I have offered excellent healthcare with a no wait guarantee and for about 25% of the going market rate in Utah. And guess what, it DIDN’T matter to most Utahns. Why? Because today’s healthcare isn’t about RELATIONSHIPS, its about fractured episodic care TRANSACTIONS----nearly identical to “Would you like fries with that burger?” I don’t know about you, but I’m sure as hell not going to buy my healthcare with the same expectations that I buy fast food. Why on earth would I participate in the compartmentalization of my health or the health of others?
It’s damn foolishiness.
Primary care practice in the style of Marcus Welby MD had it right. He knew his patients and had a huge knowledge base as a generalist to back up his art of medical practice. Plus, he listened to his patients. Imagine that----listening. When was the last time you were listened to as a patient? I bet it’s been a while. Listening was the very thing that got me in trouble with my professors at school. I consistently heard “ you take too long with the history, you need to move it along and get done, Kara”. I know my professors meant well and they were trying to make sure I’d survive in today’s broken system. But ultimately, I failed in how to not listen. I’m glad I’m in practice for myself, because I make the decision to listen every time I close the exam room door.
Today I am inviting the public ask for and seek out the best healthcare and to relearn that relationships matter. When did you stop believing that having primary care with one person was superior and meaningful to your health? Since when is it not okay to be listened to? I think the root lies somewhere in the introduction to health insurance and letting an insurance company be in the driver’s seat as the decision maker about your health. Is your $25 copay so important that you’ll accept crappy care based on insurance rules and regs? And while you’re thinking about that $25 co-pay, remember the other $300 a month that comes out of your paycheck for insurance premiums in exchange for 6 minutes of face time with the urgent care clinic who doesn’t know you from Adam. Maybe that cough isn’t really bronchitis. Maybe it’s because you’ve smoked too many cigarettes and haven’t gotten a chest xray in 10 years and it’s the first sign of lung cancer? Marcus Welby MD would have told you for years to stop smoking and would have ordered you a chest xray because he knew your family history had 2-3 cancer cases among your family members and he remembered that you have “bronchitis” too often.
To that end I have discarded my promise of affordable healthcare without the wait and instead promise that when you visit my office that you get the best care you deserve because LISTEN. I always have, I just didn’t think it mattered to anyone else but me.
Yesterday I read the messages that patients have written on my message board and it hit me that those messages reflect the quality service they receive because I LISTEN. I invite you to see what you’ve been missing-----a RELATIONSHIP with someone who listens, who knows you, and sees you as the whole person you are---and not as the strep throat in room #4 who asked a “By the way” question that has put the schedule another 20 minutes behind. I’m not dissing those who try to keep the treadmill going under the current conditions, I’m just pointing out the in sanity of it and asking patients to get off that treadmill so the physician, nurse practitioner, and physician’s assistant can too. It takes courage and a huge cut in pay to operate outside the system like I have and I wish more patients would value that and demand more of themselves as consumers.
Think about it! What do you deserve and when are you going to do something about it?
|
| Copyright ©2010 Kara Clapp |
| Permalink |
Trackback |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Doctor Kara's Blog Archive
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|