Patients are people. They are not diagnoses, data, clinical outcomes, metrics, or numbers. All too often those working in the healthcare industry forget that fact. The insurance industry pushes us to report metrics and clinical outcomes. Sure, the better the numbers probably indicate that the patient is better off. But, we should never forget the person in the patient.
Why is there this trend to dehumanize patients?
- Insurance companies want to quantify patients’ medical condition to determine reimbursements. This is simply a cost cutting strategy by third parties.
- The ACA (Affordable Care Act) changed patients into consumers. Patients should control what happens to their own health. But, being defines the same as a customer shopping at the local Wal-Mart takes the real person out of the patient. Doctors are there to give the patients are best medical advice. We are not customer service agents who need to make them happy all the time. Happiness is never guaranteed in medicine. If it were, we would never see patients with cancer or other terrible diseases.
- As a doctor in training, I remember learning that we should never refer to patients by their disease state (eg, the diabetic in room 3). It often is easier to refer to a patient as such when they are fighting a terrible disease rather than personalizing them by calling the patient by name. But, as doctors, we are called to do this hard thing. We need to keep the person in the forefront and deal with them on a personal basis. This is true medical care.
- Many patient advocate groups take the us vs. them thinking too far. They want to be seen as the consumers who drive all decisions. And doctors are there to serve their needs. I agree that patients need to be advocates for their own health. And there are many doctors out there who are overly paternalistic. But, unless doctors and patients work together as a team, the humanity in the relationship gets lost.
Patients are real people and doctors are too. We need to remember the humanity of each. Every patient is different and requires individual and personalized attention. To just stick them on a clinical pathway and expect them to follow a specified course to achieve a designated clinical outcome is just wrong. Every single patient needs to be evaluated as the unique person they are. And patients need to remember the humanity in doctors as well. We are not diagnostic robots and we are not machines that can spit out medical information 24/7.
Many mandates have been rolled out that minimize the humanity in the doctor patient relationship. Any of them that detract from this relationship are just wrong. We need to be working harder to put the trust back into our interactions. Patients deserve this from us and the whole system as well. Patients will have better clinical outcomes when they trust their caretakers. And doctors will see better outcomes when they are trusted. It is time for us to be people again.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Linda Girgis, MD, FAAFP
