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

[leafrider.livejournal.com]

That is true, I have noticed even without any serious chronic health issues, it's a lot of effort at times to get things done and manage it all.

We used to go to Scripps Clinic when it was nonprofit, and they had a really good thing there, where someone who needed a lot of care could have a scheduler help them coordinate everything and get a lot done in one day so they weren't juggling multiple appointments. Then the clinic went for-profit, except for its research, and that service went away. Really too bad. Everyone needs that kind of help, among other things.

Everywhere medical care seems arranged to make things more convenient for the providers, not very convenient at all for the patient. Even for a healthy patient just managing checkup it can be a hassle. Even worse for someone who needs more or more specialized care!

[firecat]

Everywhere medical care seems arranged to make things more convenient for the providers, not very convenient at all for the patient. Even for a healthy patient just managing checkup it can be a hassle. Even worse for someone who needs more or more specialized care!

Exactly. Don't even get me started about what it was like trying to get care for my mother when she became disabled from dementia. This was one major reason she ended up in a nursing home instead of being able to continue living at home with my dad's help.