No one studies the effort of managing one's health care

[firecat]

This is yet another thing that people with medical conditions get blamed for—not managing their own care well enough, although according to this article NO ONE studies the efforts required to manage one's own health care.

(Content note: one use of the "O-word")

"But American medicine demands another scarce resource from patients, and that is their time. The time it takes to check in on the status of a prescription, to wait for a doctor, to take time away from work to sit on hold and hope that, at some point, someone will pick up the phone.
...
"There is a risk associated with not measuring patient work: namely, that patients will give up when life gets in the way. This is an especially acute worry for lower-income patients, who often work for hourly wages and have little space to change their schedules."

http://www.vox.com/2016/6/1/11712776/healthcare-footprint

Comments

[johnpalmer]

Heh. One of the things I found frustrating was that I was the only one to dig and think and consider about what mystery was bothering me. Just that part - a non-medically trained person trying desperately to understand medicine enough to ask he right questions, is a big deal.

[bibliofile]

I know, right? And what if you don't ever get around to the right questions? I'm lucky enough to have nurses in the extended family circle, which helps on some things but not others.

I'd been wondering about that article (seen only in passing on FB). It's so true! Thanks for the link, firecat.