Heath Care

Introduction

?Building the Future of Health Care on the Foundations of Family Practice? is an excellent article that individuals in the health care profession should read. Although, this article is geared towards Family Practice the concept within this article can be applied to any scope of practice. After reading this article, I will be discussing the following three points: my reaction to the concept of the article, what positive out comes could be obtained by incorporating this concept into the health care profession, and how it could be implemented into the health care profession.

Reaction

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. After I finished reading this article, my initial reaction was ?there is still hope for the medical profession despite all the forecasting and predicting of changes that the new millennium has to offer the health care industry.? This article made me reflect back to two years ago when my grandmother was diagnosed with Lymphoma and given an estimated six months to a year to live. The physician whom my grandmother was seeing at that time-shared many of the same valves that Dr. Phillips believes in. For example in the article he states, ?Family medicine is much more than primary care.? ?Be more than a provider.? ?Deliver more than a service.? Take the time.? Hold the hand.? Care for the patient.? This is the very concept that enabled my grandmother to find the courage and the strength to fight for her life. Her physician took the time, held her hand in the time of needed and stayed

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beside throughout the disease. Just by this ?one? physician, giving my grandmother comfort, confidence, and continual communication her overall condition improved. It is now two years later and my grandmother is still alive and in remission. If you were to ask my grandmother about her Family physician, she would tell you that he is the reason that she is alive today. In the article Dr. Phillips states, ?health is more than the absence of disease, and care is more than the provision of diagnostic and treatment services.? My grandmother?s story illustrates this very belief.

It is very easy to get tied up in all the negatives that are surrounded the health care profession, but reading this article made me focus back on the positive aspect of health care and remind me of the very reason I entered the Physician Assistant Program. No matter what changes and advances in technology take place in the health care profession one thing will always remain unchanged and that is that ?face-to-face- interaction with our patients is our most powerful diagnostic and therapeutic resource.?

It appears to me that Dr. Phillips through this article is calling out to all Family practice practitioners to help take control and save the health care system by reminding us of very foundation of health ?CARE?, caring for others with the human touch. Today in the business world I think we have lost the entire meaning of health care. It is important that we do not allow this to happen, and that we always keep the patients well being the first and highest priority.

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Outcomes

There are many positive outcomes that we can expect if we the concept of care and compassion for the patients over all Heath Care. One of the positive outcomes we can expect when we use compassion and care as the number one priority to care for a patient is the patient having a positive response to the treatment. My grandmother is a perfect example of this. Her doctor provided a service to her not just as a physician, but also as fellow human being with care and compassion. In doing so he gave her the confidence and comfort she needed to fight against the disease. He believed she could fight it, so in turn she began to believe and she did fight it all the way to its remission. I honestly believe that if that doctor would have not taken the time to show compassion, care, and belief in her that she would have given up, and not been able to fight off the disease so well.

Another positive outcome that could be expected is patient loyalty. It is like doctor Phillips said ?Patients will continue to place a high premium on the human aspects of medicine.? This means that when a patient finds a doctor that satisfies their need of the ?human aspect? of health care they will remain loyal to that doctor. Once the patient has a doctor that they trust with their wellbeing they will not in trust any other doctor with their wellbeing without their primary doctor?s consent. I have seen it before while I was volunteering in the emergency room at the hospital. The patient holds their doctor in such high regards that know matter how good another doctor may be they will not let another doctor even touch them without consulting their own doctor first. Further more, they have to speak to their doctor personally, and no message will do. I have actually

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witnessed a patient refuse treatment that was in need of it, until they got in touch with their own doctor. If you ask me that says a lot about their doctor. That doctor must know the how important of the ?human aspects? of health care, and that is why his patients are so loyal.

There is one more possible positive outcome that I have yet to mention, and that is strength in numbers. It is imperative that all family physicians demand that the health care system provides the opportunity for every physician to be the best family doctor they can be. This important because ?not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.? The biggest benefits and costs are almost never countable such as life, death, fear, joy, trust, pain, reassurance, healing, and renewal. I feel that the health care industry seems to some how lose sight of this in its chase of the ?almighty dolor.? Today?s health care industry buys and sells both doctors and patients not to help cure the patient but to increase profits. This can only be overcome by sticking together, and staying true to the ?human aspects? of medicine.

Generalizability

This concept can be utilized and adapted universally in the medical practices today. However, it will not be an easy task. This will be a very difficult task in especially in the United States where money drives the medical industry in every aspect. Even though I fell that the patients? wellbeing should be the most important thing. It would be foolish for me not to acknowledge that money is a very important issue regardless of how much it should not be. If family physicians decided to see all of their patients free of charge

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they would not be around for very long regardless of how good of care they give. That is why I feel that an origination should that unites family physicians across America should be formed. This would give the family physicians the much-needed leverage against the profit driven health care industry. It can be very difficult for one single family physician to fight to be heard for the right to give quality care to their patients. However, if you have a nation wide organization with the same beliefs in quality family care backing you then some of the insurance companies may be forced to listen. Even though the insurance companies but a strain on the family practice, and their concerns are focused on profits and not patients they are still very much a necessity. The help prevent unnecessary procedures, and help to regulate cost. However, I feel that like many other in the health care industry they have lost site of what is most important, the ?human aspect? of the heath ?Care? industry. All of the family physicians need to join together in the fight to ensure that the rest of the health care industry does not forget why we are here, and that is to give quality medical care to those who need it. The family physicians must demand that the health care industry provide the opportunity for each and every physician to be the best family doctor that they can.

Closing

Family care can lead the way for reforms in the health care industry as long as we do

we remember what the very essence of what drives family practices to the forefront of

of all other patient care, and that is care and compassion for the whole person that you

serve. All family physicians would be well served to recognize these enduring values,

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because, it is these values that patients both expect and deserve. These values of

the ?human aspect? of patient care must be basses for any future health care system

that is worth being a part of. We must recognize these values in ourselves,

and stay committed to the delivery of quality health ?Care? to our patients on a daily

bases.