There’s a lot in the press about physician and nurse burnout – and I will address that in a future post because it is critically important to understand. But I haven’t read as much about patient burnout…but it too is critically important to understand.
In fact, it’s a major reason I formed MD For Patients – a group of highly trained and experienced medical specialists who provide expert patient consultations directly to patients and their care providers.
Patients are justifiably tired of being treated without respect for their time, their emotions, and their dignity. Nothing is more private, personal or precious than one’s own health – yet all too often the clinic experience from a patient’s perspective is of a long wait for a next available appointment, hassles finding parking, a long wait in a waiting room followed by another wait in an exam room, a very brief encounter with a physician who is pressed for time, who sometimes explains briefly their opinion and instructions to the patient with one hand on the doorknob as they’re backing out of the exam room, followed by an even longer wait to see a specialist for further evaluation. That wait can take months for the next available appointment and the process repeats itself. Sometimes multiple specialists are involved – greatly increasing the time spent and the patient’s stress.
Rarely do these specialists communicate directly with each other, leaving the synthesis of opinions to the primary care physician who lacks specialty training and struggles to reach any of the specialists if they need clarification of recommendations. The patient is left to follow a frustrating and inefficient path, all the while navigating insurance forms, bills, out of network and off formulary warnings, and feeling very much dehumanized and demoralized.
If the patient has questions about their diagnosis and treatment, there may not be enough time during a clinic visit to ask and get them answered. Moreover, it’s likely the patient won’t think of all their questions during their very limited time with a physician – and it’s very difficult to get thoughtful answers to questions once they leave the exam room.
This means it is essentially always very difficult for patients to get their questions answered by the people who are best trained to answer them – the specialists.
All this leads to a feeling of not being in control – not understanding what’s happening, what’s wrong, what to do about it, and what it all means for one’s future and one’s quality of life.
I formed MD For Patients to change this dynamic: We give patients the opportunity to get all of their questions answered, in a thoughtful and unhurried setting and in direct conversation with their medical specialists.
Our specialists are intentionally NOT extremely difficult to reach, and we do not rush our patients. We believe that healthcare is best delivered thoroughly and thoughtfully, in a collaborative manner with our patients.
After all, we are here to serve our patients, and we want our patients to feel valued, respected, and relieved to have finally found us. We want to revive their hope that their healthcare questions can be answered in a practice environment that is refreshingly honest, direct, efficient, and respectful.
Nobody chooses to be in the role of the patient. Nobody chooses not to feel well – and all of us are patients sometimes. No patient should be treated in such a way that makes them feel even worse than they already do. Poorly delivered healthcare too often leads to patient frustration, discouragement, loss of hope, and burnout.
At MD For Patients, we take a different approach to healing – and we frankly wonder why something that is so obvious to us also feels so revolutionary.
