Health Care

I’ve never really, really needed health care before.  I’ve always been able to get in to see my Doc or get a massage, visit the PT, see the Chiropractor, have stitches put in, and all those routine things.   My parents, aunts, uncles, in-laws — that older generation – has always needed care but they’ve had medicare to help and it’s all be sort of once-removed for me.   

A few years ago when my Mom got so sick the hospital and her doctors took great care of her, as did the nursing center where she lived for the next two and a half years.  She’s home now and when I was talking to my sister this morning, the visiting nurse arrived to check on mom.   Yes, there’s been headaches with paperwork, and sometimes Gail had to really push the doctors, but Mom’s been taken care of.  When my father-in-law, at age 89, got pneumonia in New London, Connecticut the nurses, doctors and hospital staff were amazing, truly.    It wasn’t until we got back to Seattle when we started to feel the need to push the system to help us.  It seemed to us that they saw an old man and decided it didn’t matter.   

And then my Dad got sick last year and when he really needed care, the emergency room failed him.  Again, I think they saw and old guy and figured it didn’t really matter.  Once he was in the hospital, after several trips to emergency, they took great care of him until he died.  There were some issues, but in general, we felt he was well cared for and we knew Medicare would cover the bills and not burden my mother.

And now I need health care.  The kind that makes noted surgeons scratch their heads and send residents off to consult with other doctors.   It would be easy for me to get passed around, but that’s not happening here at Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU).  Yesterday I saw a world-class neurosurgeon (Stanford, UW, University of Virginia, and hospitals across the US and UK).  He literally sent his 5th-year resident up the tram to the main campus to bring my MRI films to another surgeon.  That surgeon was in surgery.  He looked at my films, consulted with my doctor, and then my doctor scheduled a consultation for me with the 2nd doctor and they will team-manage my care.  WOW.  Collaboration and communication in real time.  I saw another specialist in the afternoon and she had already pre-consulted with other doctors about my situation and was prepared to share as much as she could.   She was honest, kind and generous with her time.

Back in Seattle, I still have only been able to get one appointment, a week from now, for a general consultation.   I know I am getting expedited care at OHSU because I have a friend and advocate in the system.  But that’s only part of it.  You don’t change how doctors work because a friend asked for it.  Oh that ask may get you past the scheduler and the test results back a little quicker, but the fundamental principles of collaboration and communication don’t change.

As we face the health care crisis here in the US, I hope we build in incentives for working together and not just for more tests.