Shhh

A quiet morning so far; the twins are fast asleep and that means it’s quiet enough for the nervous cat to take a nap. Though I must say that the cat has been getting better at her “people” skills. She now makes it through a Karlee and Kyle visit without climbing the drapes and she only twitched a little bit when the twins invaded her space last night.

It’s time to see what’s on the internet… and since health care is going to be a big part of this political year and the next; I’ve been reading various opinions on the “cure” for health care maladies. And one that got my attention was not an opinion so much as it was a question. What do you want from your doctor? Good question and one that ought to discussed thoroughly before laws are passed that tie the hands of doctors.

The answer is easy. I want a doctor like the ones I remember from the 1940’s. (OK, I know it won’t happen. It was just a fleeting dream.) Those doctors had time for you, or so it seemed. I do remember that they made house calls and that was normal when there was some indication that you were quite sick. Sick people shouldn’t be sitting in waiting rooms.

Health insurance didn’t exist then and you paid cash for a visit to the doctor. It was expensive, but it wasn’t outrageous or unaffordable. Most doctors fit their fees to the patient and the locale. They had to. That’s where they lived as well.

Let’s say we can’t remove the grip that the health insurance industry has on the system; which is probably going to be true. Now what kind of doctor do you want? Since the main complaint of patients is that the doctor doesn’t spend enough time with them; that should be the first problem addressed.

Empowering the nurse/practitioner seems like the only sensible solution. The doctor sees you once a year and then gives a nurse/practitioner all the time in the world to tend to the patients. And allows them to make decisions. And there needs to be a different billing rate for visits with the nurse versus the doctor. I understand that in most cases, you are billed the same amount. That’s wrong.

My case in point; I have seen a new doctor and he has become our family physician. I saw him one time and for less than half an hour, for which he was paid an exorbitant amount of money by the insurers. I have no sense of who he is. He is simply a face and not even a familiar one. If we passed each other in the market, I would never notice him. Perhaps we have? And I already have an appointment to see him in October of this year, a full year from the first visit. That’s good; I’m relatively healthy. Or I hope I am.

That’s because I noted that he seemed busy during that first visit, I didn’t ask him all of the questions I should have. Just being polite. And he didn’t invite a lot of questions. That’s wrong on both our parts. Somehow it doesn’t seem right to ask the insurance company to pay big bucks for another visit just so I can ask those forgotten questions.

Now suppose that first visit had ended with a similar amount of time spent with a nurse/practitioner. 30 minutes to get to know each other, to relax a little and ask those inevitable questions. Some questions could be answered on the spot and others would be noted for follow-up. And I would be invited to e-mail or call them if I had any other concerns.

If all went well, within an hour you would now have a friend, one who cared about your health and actually knew you. You would have also seen a “real doctor” and that would assure you that the nurse/practitioner had professional backup for any problems. That would work for me.

By the way, my doctor works within a group that seems to pride itself on being just "regular folks", approachable and dedicated to your care.