How To Manage Your Health Conditions
Steal a page from the corporate playbook.
Imagine seeing your accountant without any financial records in hand.
Or going to your lawyer without any evidence of the claims being made.
And for that matter, imagine coming in for a consultation with your new physician and sometimes not even knowing why!
The referral was made, the patient was told to come, and the physician asks, “Mr Anderson, do you know why you’re here?”
Cue blank stare.
This is what’s happening in today’s practice setting. Providers will interact mostly with the EMR and relegate their patients to please do this, don’t do that, see you again soon, and don’t forget to leave a urine sample on the way out.
In time, patient responsibility reaches a level in which all they need to do is show up and check in.
Healthcare has become so mammoth in size that patients are lost in the shuffle, and today’s solution might keep them in line, but the individual remains out of touch.
For example, perhaps this ensures a person shows up for her screening test or annual exam, but the system breaks down when the management plan requires considerably more engagement, which could involve exercise or diet change.
This is particularly true in cardiovascular disease and lifestyle medicine.
Here, the path to success is gradual and long, and the steps needed to succeed are patient-driven.
Likewise, obesity is not handled by a series of diagnostic tests and a follow-up intervention. Patients just need to show up for these!
Instead, these patients need to follow through. They must make changes at home; show accountability; ask for help; and truly become the CEO of their own health.
Taking a page from the corporate playbook, it’s time for patients to keep detailed notebooks, to-do lists and reminders, and schedule all the necessary meetings that ensure the job gets done.
The next time you’re at the doctor’s office, show up like a CEO — prepared, informed and with documents in order. Your discussion with your physician is so much more than meeting with your accountant or attorney.
It will set the stage, and price, for the company that matters most – YOU!
