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The Secret of Great Health Care

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March 1, 2010

If You are Going to Do It; Do It Right

     OK, so you need to go to the doctor. That’s OK. Just do it right.   One practice that I know, has doctors who see an average of 50-60 patients in an 8 hour day. Do the math – that is somewhere between 6.25 and 7.5 patients per hour – that is seeing one patient approximately every 8-10 minutes.

     In this 8-10 minutes the doctor has to talk to the patient, exam the patient, write the prescription, chart and teach. This time table does not include any time for the doctor to return phone calls, consult with other doctors or even go to the bathroom.

     What is the point of all this? You do not have a long time with your doctor and you better use it appropriately.

     Here are a few steps to help improve your health care.

·         Know your past medical history. Nothing is more annoying to a doctor who is extremely busy than having to tease out every disease you have and every medication that you are on. You may be saying, “Who cares that is his problem, not mine”. When the doctor has to spend extra time tracking down your medical history, it will come out of the time it takes for you to ask questions at the end. A free form to record your medical history can be found at: http://www.mini-medicalschool.com/Problems_-_Chapter_11.html

·         Come to the appointment prepared to describe your health problem. A form to help you with this can be found at: http://www.mini-medicalschool.com/Communication.html (click on acute visit form).

·         Come to the appointment prepared with a list of questions. Have one for you to hand to the doctor and one for you to read off of. Put the questions in order of importance – you may not get to all of them.

If you do you part – the health care system will do its part. Take charge of your health care.

Feb 15, 2010

Health care problems – what is your role?

Despite your feelings on the health care reform issues going on in Washington, I think we can all agree that it will take a long time before major changes will occur.

The health care system will not improve on its own. Therefore, it is your responsibility to take charge of your health.

This blog will look at steps the individual health care consumer can take to improve the quality of their personal health care.

   Here are a few steps that will be addressed in this blog.

·         Keep a personal health record

·         Learn how to communicate with the health care system

·         Prevent disease

·         Understand common health care problems

·         Understand how to use over-the-counter products

·         Understand antibiotics including their danger

·         Learn to manage chronic disease

·         Learn to talk to your doctor about the chronic diseases that you have

Stay tuned for tips to improve your health care.

Feb 1, 2010

It’s Your choice

You control your health.

You control your disease.

Your choices decide if you are healthy, sick, feel well, or feel poor.

Your decision to exercise will determine if you become crippled with arthritis or your are an active and healthy 80 year-old.

It is Your choice to feel good, live long, and live healthy. What you decide to do with your body has a large impact of the quality of your life.

Do you want to:

Get out of bed every morning feeling stiff.
Limp around all day.
Feel short of breath when walking up the stairs.

I write this blog at a McDonalds. I am watching people force their large guts out of the car, limp up to the door, throw their cigarette on the ground, order large quantities of fatty food, push themselves out of their booth, exit the restaurant and light up another cigarette . Americans are killing themselves.

It makes me feel a little sick at the poor state of the American health.

It is YOUR choice. It is YOUR body.

I was taught a long time ago to treat others well and they will treat you well in return. The same goes for your body: treat it well and it will treat you the same way.