My Journal
Hey 99% - Occupy Healthcare
December 2nd, 2011
Currently, America is a experiencing social unrest comparable to the Civil Rights movement half a century ago. People across the US (and the rest of the world) followed in the foot steps of the few who decided to stand up to Wall Street for themselves and the 99%, demanding equality and economic balance.
How does this affect us?
I Had Cancer believes Patient Knowledge to be the most discarded resource in the Health Profession. While there are some patients who manage to get heard by their health care providers and have their knowledge taken into account even applied if necessary, the majority of people - perhaps 99% - are not being heard by their doctors.
Now before we start talking about Doctors and/or their inability to listen to anything that does not sound agreeable to their line of thinking, it must be noted that the fault is not entirely their own. Between seeing a large number of patients, writing charts, organizing staff, meetings and what have you, technically doctors have about 15 minutes of allotted time to talk to their patients and cover all the basic life sustaining information. This is NOT enough time to go over all the questions patients have about their immediate treatment of discussing alternative treatment.
Self-advocacy begins with us. Everyone of us has the ability to research, learn and exchange information. While most of us will not be able to convince our health care providers to simply sit with us for a longer period of time than with others, we can do something to help ourselves be heard. While camping out in front of your doctors office holding up signs is probably not the way to go on this one (pharma and insurance companies aside), here are three easy steps to gain the attention you deserve.
- Ask your health care provider to give you a good time to discuss your questions or have your doctor meet with you at the end of their day so as to give you more time to talk.
- Email a list of inquiries to your doctor before your appointment so that he/she may prepare answers before you meet or send them back to you via email.
- Get a second opinion about your treatment course.
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