Great ideas, Obeahdoctor! So as providers, I hope we can engage patient populations we are passionate about in meaningful ways before others do (especially those with ulterior motive$ such as pharma, insurance, etc). The issue of access you raised in a very important one. I guess this discussion should be limited to those who have insurance/medicare/medicaid. I can't tell you how many times people HAD insurance but refused to go to the doctor/hospital. I remember a few months ago, I was driving home from work, in south queens, and an elderly gentlemen tripped as he lifted his leg to step on the sidewalk, fell and his forehead hit the curb. He just layed in the middle of the street, bleeding. I got out of my car and helped him to the curb and he insisted he was ok. "there's no way i'm going to the doctor!" he kept yelling. It took a few minutes for me to figure out which was his house, called his daughter out, called the ambulance, and after some intense persuading was able to convince him to go to the hospital and he wasn't just gonna heal by himself (injury was severe). I'm not saying this one man was representative of the general population, but according to his daughter he was fortunate enough to have medicare, but refuses to utilize services he is entitled to. Ultimately, these folks end up costing "the system" more in terms of intensive care when a serious illness arises, end of life care, possible organ failures, etc.
exactly, great point. That is why I hope, as providers, we can help mitigate fear-mongering and educate them on how to utilize resources out there.
This is the goal. excellent point.
LOL at the confession. I'm guilty of the same. In fact, as recent as last night!!! Interesting point about doing research ahead of time helping the diagnosis. THAT is the ideal utilization of these tools in my opinion. Patients are able to be more proactive about their care, which is much better than the "doc, i'm broke fix me attitude" that some can bring to the examination room.
My biggest fear about those message boards is when you're reading the list of symptoms and you're telling yourself you have all of them!!! haha it's so scary. It's like this commercial that comes up on the Science channel (can't help it, How It's Made is SO ADDICTING!) that asks viewers questions like "does your email take longer than three seconds to load?" in order to convince them they need software repair services...doesn't everyone's email take three or more seconds to load? Speaking of annoying commercials, the ones that piss me off most are the AT&T 4G speed ones in which several people are attached to their phones and yelling out update. Obnoxious imho lol.
Sorry for the long post HUCMers!!!!
) all working together to directly impact each community member's well being in a positive way 👍
