Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Monday, February 15, 2016

Education by Drips

Perhaps you are one of the fortunate Americans with good health.  At our house that is not the case.  We spend a lot of time with the healthcare industry.

Our daughter is a nurse educator in a cutting edge hospital.  She tells me part of implementing the Affordable Care Act is a push toward educating the public. The medical world is finding they have a very steep hill to climb in doing this

Personally I've found Americans 65 and older tend to fall into two groups:

1) They view the medical world negatively from some past experience and have closed their minds against having a positive experience. They prefer complaining. It's much easier to complain and find fault that it is to become educated.  Education takes time and requires involvement.  Not interested.

2)  The folks in this group are still in good health.  It's depressing to think about the time coming they might need more healthcare.  They'll think about it if that time comes.  Not interested.

An educated public would significantly reduce the cost of healthcare in America.

No one can force you to be educated, they can however attempt to educate you using the drip method, drip, drip, drip.  These are some of the things I'm noticing in the hospital and clinics we use.

a)  More pamphlets and printed educational materials.

b)  Instead of music while you're on hold you may hear a healthcare message playing in your ear.  I noticed that for the first time this morning when I was on hold.  What a concept.

c)  The clinic we use now has a flatscreen monitor in the waiting room that plays a continual loop of healthcare messaging while you wait.

d)  Our hospital system has a portal where patients can access all kinds of good stuff.  Bob gets an email every time he has blood work done.  It contains a link to his medical records so he can review the results of that lab work.

I've received messages informing me it was time for a mammogram, and one about it being time for a colonoscopy.

I can email the clinic and ask for an appointment.  Much easier than waiting on hold on the phone if you don't need the appointment immediately.

I'm told they began in January rolling out text messaging through the system.  It hasn't made it to any of the offices we use yet but I'm eager for it to get to us.  I love text messaging.

e) Advertising on the side of buses.  Imagine my surprise the other day when I stopped next to a city bus, looked over and there was my doctor smiling at me with a healthcare message from the side of the bus!

Be prepared to be educated by drips.  Education is a cost cutter.

11 comments:

  1. We have "d" here also and I love it though I often have to Google what the results mean.

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    1. That's a real problem. My nurse educator daughter says her hospital employs a person who does nothing but 'dumb down' the material the educators write. This is an effort to get away from the 'doctor speak' that's plagued us for so long.

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  2. Yes, education is a cost-cutter in so many ways. I just wish more folks would realize this. (And incidentally, one recent criticism I heard about our President is that he uses the word "folks." I didn't realize that word is an obscenity.)

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    1. Thanks for the head's up on the word 'folks.' I sent you a link by email about it. Getting so I hardly know what to say anymore.

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    2. What? "Folks" is an obscenity? Never heard of this and didn't find anything on Google.

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  3. Health care rules in our community. We have two first rate hospitals and all the accompanying services. Plus the bill boards pushing the urgent care facilities. Not bad for living in the sticks. In that respect I feel fortunate.

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    1. You are indeed fortunate. Oh that it were that good all over the country.

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  4. I'm 71 and well educated about medical conditions. And so are my friends. The problem is the contradictory information out there.......

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    1. Thanks for stopping by and leaving this excellent comment. You are so right. Contradictory information is every where. It is very frustrating. In a few days I'll be posting about this very thing as it relates to prescription drugs.

      I also sit with a group at our community hospital that discusses how our hospital and clinics are doing implementing the Affordable Care Act. I am going to mention your comment next time we meet. Thanks again for stopping by.

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  5. I think I am in the second category. I learn about things when I need to. Then I can be an advocate for myself.
    We are very fortunate to be in an HMO that takes care of us. We are notified by email when tests are due, and we get test results back via email, often the same day. We are notified when we are due for things like mammograms, scans, and other procedures and when we have referrals to specialists, that office calls us to set up the appointment.

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    1. We're in the same area of the country. Wonder if that has anything to do with it? I have a feeling all areas are not so fortunate.

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