when doing your best is not good enough (grumble, grumble)

 

If you're a health care provider, try to imagine a day in the office when you're able to stay on time despite the inevitable delays and interruptions that tend to put you behind schedule. Imagine having time to accommodate the patient who presents with "a little indigestion" that turns out to be angina, or to stitch up the patient who arrives unannounced with the laceration on his hand, or to deal with the teen who thinks she has a UTI, but turns out to have an STD.

"Relax.

Everything is running right on schedule."

~The Universe~

Imagine being able to decide for yourself how much time to allow for each patient, and how much to charge for each visit. Imagine what it feels like to know you've done an accurate and thorough job. Just think how appreciative your patients would be...knowing you took your time with them. Do you remember what it was like to make eye contact with them?

Back when I started to practice this is exactly how we operated, without the superimposed constraints of intrusive hospital/healthcare systems, and insurance behemoths whose #1 priority is corporate profit. Back then (yes, in this lifetime) uninsured patients were likely to bring in a bushel of apples, or a couple dozen ears of corn if that's all they could afford. And we were happy to accept it. If we needed a ten-minute appointment with them for a sore throat, we took it. If we needed thirty minutes, we took it.

"If you are not in control

of your time,

you are not in control of your results."

~Brian Moran~

This issue haunted me this week because two people I know and love recently had surgery. Not long, complicated operations, but short out-patient procedures. That. Took. All. Day. Long. Hours in registration and pre-op. Hours in post-op and recovery. Because the surgeons were running behind schedule, or the nurses were tied up with endless administrative tasks. 

This will happen. I get that. But it reminded me how much I disliked running late when I was in practice. Keeping patients waiting when they had to get back to work, or pick up their children, or get home to milk the cows. Hurrying to keep up, and worrying I would miss something. Always apologizing. Always anxious.

I know a few things about healthcare finance and economics. Still, I question the motivation and logic behind scheduling patients so tightly it keeps the provider under constant pressure to see more patients faster. All day. Every day. While, at the same time, it keeps patients waiting. Impatient and dissatisfied.

This is a problem when it translates into this:

"Sometimes doing your best 

is not good enough.

Sometimes you must do what is required."

~Winston Churchill~

How does that align with excellent patient care?

jan