Images of Change: The Patient Appointment

Time Discarded

Submitted as part of Image of Change: A Health Care Evolution Photo Contest. Feel free to submit yours (Instructions at the link).  -Wes

Images of Change: Clicking is Caring



 “The secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.” - F. Peabody


Submitted as part of Image of Change: A Health Care Evolution Photo Contest. Feel free to submit yours (Instructions at the link).  -Wes

Images of Change: Going Private

The Loss of Roommates, courtesy D. Graf

"I spent several days, in 2012, as a patient at two different hospitals in my pre-ablation period. I had roommates at both locations and each of them was named George. The rooms I was in are no longer shared bed facilities, they are now private. This is a profound change in health care. I learned much from both Georges and was able to listen in as their doctors and nurses filled them in about their conditions. I overheard specific information about their prescription drugs, their recommended diets and their health summary. (George I and II were able to see and hear my health are team, too). I also saw their relatives and friends come and go and felt able to ascertain which ones were there to encourage their loved one and which ones were going through the visitation motions. I heard some visitors talk about wanting to be granted Power of Attorney privileges and others asking about location of car and house keys. I also saw true friendship and empathy from some of the visitors. During the quiet times, mainly in the late nights after visitation, we would talk, compare notes about our healthcare providers, review the quality of hospital food, ask about each others work and hobby interests and generally bond. I haven't kept in contact with either George since we were hospital roommates, but it felt good to be together in a shared experience. The end of shared hospital rooms is, from a patient perspective, a major change in health care policy."

Submitted as part of Image of Change: A Health Care Evolution Photo Contest. Feel free to submit yours (Instructions at the link).  -Wes

Images of Change: Charting

Image courtesy Kathy Neider, MD, Staff Physician, Baptist Health

"I'm sitting where my credenza used to be, stacked high with charts. I figured if I was going to be in my office till late at night finishing electronic charting, it might as well be in a comfortable place."

Submitted as part of Image of Change: A Health Care Evolution Photo Contest. Feel free to submit yours (Instructions at the link).  -Wes

Images of Change: A Health Care Evolution Photo Contest

Much of my interest in writing about health care has been the changes I've noticed and experienced over the years of practicing medicine: some good, some not-so-good.  Pictures of these changes to health care, I've found, are limited.  Sooo, I thought it would be fun to create a contest of sorts: perhaps it will be well-recieved, perhaps not, I have no idea.  But the idea is this: try to capture an aspect of change in health care that you've noticed in a single photograph.

Almost all of us carry a smart phone.  As such, we have a perfect opportunity to capture images that might embody some change we have seen in health care.  Send it to me at wes - at - medtees dot com, tell me why you think this represents "change," and I'll add them to this blog from time to time if there's enough interest.   Be careful not to include any patient images, please (HIPAA frowns on that), and keep the content professional.  Send as many as you want, but please don't send super-high res images or my mailbox will become overloaded quickly. (I am celebrating that my blog finally has more than two readers a day!)  After I collect as many as I can over the next several months, I'll post all of those I've received in a photoshopped collage, then let people pick the image they feel best depicts health care's most significant "change."  So tell friends at the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, retweet the post, put this exceptional contest on Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn - the more the merrier.  Then have fun.

What will you receive for your efforts?  Once selected, the grand prize winner will receive worldwide recognition as the "The Biggest Change Agent, 2013!"  (Sorry, monetary prizes are easily gamed and might miss the spirit of the contest - yes, Virginia, this is strictly for fun and entertainment.)  (If someone want's to help contribute some real coin to the effort, e-mail me and maybe we can make a real prize contest out of this...)

So be thinking about this (in all of your spare time), snap a pic, and send it on.  I'd love to see what others are seeing around the country (or around the world) as health care changes faster than ever. 

To get you started: here's a picture I took today.  I think it speaks volumes:



Mailboxes in the Physician Lounge
(Click to enlarge)

 -Wes