A healthcare network
In just a little over a year and a half, I've gone to or been treated by at least 11 different medical specialists. I've worked with three different primary care providers, had CT scans performed at three different hospitals, and had X-rays done at two. I've been given general anesthesia three times and have two more procedures scheduled in the next three weeks that will require more anesthesia. I've lost count of how many cups I've peed in and placed behind little doors in bathroom walls, and I've had so much blood drawn that I'm thinking of hanging a Red Cross emblem on my office door.
Nurses, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, mental health professionals, physician assistants, radiology technologists - an editor of a magazine for healthcare professionals couldn't ask to keep better company. And with all the probing and peering, insertions and extractions, care and reassurance, I feel as though I'm getting an up close and personal perspective on the work the readers of On Call do. I've certainly gotten more than a few article ideas and several good interview opportunities from the medical odyssey I embarked on the summer before last.
Of course I didn't intentionally set out to survey the professions this way. I know there are easier ways to inquire about what you do. But the convergence of a lot of little health issues and a couple bigger ones (most of which are resolving quite nicely) created moments of opportunity. But opportunity or not, it hasn't been easy, and it certainly isn't fun.
You'd have to be a masochist to think negotiating the healthcare system would be fun. I am fortunate, though, that I'm old enough to have already raised three kids. Taking care of their health needs was sort of like spring training for what seems to be happening more and more as this baby boomer gets older. I'm also fortunate that both Sandy and I have been in health communications for a very long time, so we both know a little bit about what's going on and what we need to do and what we need to ask to get good care.
Perhaps the best advantage we've had, though, especially when things tended to get rough, is our own network of health professionals that we've worked beside for so long. Whenever we began to feel overwhelmed, we had someone we could talk to who could help us understand what we were hearing and seeing, who could give us names of people to call, and whose, on a few occasions when we really needed to, name we could drop. Everyone should have such a network.
In her feature article this month, Linda Wessling tells us about another network - the health professionals who comprise the staff at Harvard University Health Services. Their goal is not only to simplify access to quality care for students, many of whom are on their own for the first time in their life, but also to help those students become informed, confident, and proactive about their well-being. They do that by making themselves and a wide array of services available to the individuals they care for.
People may not know how much they need something like that until something happens. But take it from me, when something does happen, you're mighty glad the network's there.
Joseph Saling
