{"id":1825,"date":"2009-08-02T22:41:48","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T03:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mercuryranch.org\/blog\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2019-06-14T09:03:48","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T14:03:48","slug":"keeping-the-patient-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/keeping-the-patient-key\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping the Patient Key"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think I’ve found what has been bothering me the most about the ongoing health care discussion — and it’s neatly summed up at the end of this article<\/a>.\u00a0 Even shorter.\u00a0 In two words:\u00a0 Patient-centric.<\/p>\n

The article consists of an interview with a nurse practitioner.\u00a0 I’ve received excellent service from nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants over the last however many years.\u00a0 My recent experience has been with nurse practitioners, and the interview above showcases excellent information about this vital field.<\/p>\n

My experience with nurse practitioners (NPs) has solely revolved around womens’ health, and I’ve only known female NPs.\u00a0 Since nurses come in both genders, it should be no surprise that the same is true for NPs.\u00a0 I see an internist (male) as my primary care physician.\u00a0 He has an NP in his office who handles annual exams (PAP smears, etc).\u00a0 This particular NP happens to be female.\u00a0 I’m happy with that.\u00a0 I know men can be very capable with women’s problems, but I have generally felt more comfortable with women performing “that” exam.\u00a0 Not that I particularly care to have just anyone rooting around “down there.”\u00a0 But some things are necessary, you know?<\/p>\n

I had an ongoing issue from before I retired that I needed to get resolved, so this NP referred me to the GYN doc.\u00a0 She verified what the problem was and presented several possible courses of action she thought would best resolve the matter, and I chose what I thought would be most effective, least invasive, and reversible if it didn’t work.\u00a0 When I went in for the appointment to execute that decision on Friday, I encountered yet another NP.\u00a0 This one performed the procedure flawlessly, and I’m initially very pleased.\u00a0 Time will tell if it’s effective, be we have every reason to believe it will be.<\/p>\n

The key for me, and for the NP in the article referenced above is my medical team (and I’ve come to think of them as a team — they work that well together) is all about what is best for ME as a patient and a human being.\u00a0 I pay my $12 co-pay, and I get what I need.\u00a0 At least, that’s what it’s been so far.\u00a0 Not everyone is so fortunate as I am.<\/p>\n

As a military retiree, I am using a government plan, but I don’t sense what Congress is talking about is going to be anywhere near\u00a0 equivalent to what I have.\u00a0 It sounds, as the article states, like a poorly funded version of what we have now that won’t address how to maximize the personnel we have to provide what’s most appropriate for the patient.\u00a0 Instead, we’re hearing about end of life counseling, which sounds scarily like a geriatric holocaust.\u00a0 Young people may think that’s no big deal, but the older they become, the more wrong they’ll see that to be.\u00a0 (See movie:\u00a0 “Soylent Green<\/a>” and pay attention to Edward G. Robinson’s character.)\u00a0 And, will I lose what I have?<\/p>\n

The the single greatest concern of people who have appropriate health care appears to be “will I lose what I have.”\u00a0 The President keeps insisting that won’t happen, but I can’t see how it won’t.\u00a0 And wording in most of the versions out for review seems to support that there’s no way people who are happy with the system they have will be able to keep it.\u00a0 It’s another least common denominator situation with us taking a collective step backwards so we all have it equally bad.\u00a0 That’s not acceptable for a country that purports to be the world leader we, at least through January 19, 2009, claim to be.\u00a0 There MUST be a better way, and Congress must not pass a bad bill just to pass a bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think I’ve found what has been bothering me the most about the ongoing health care discussion — and it’s neatly summed up at the end of this article.\u00a0 Even shorter.\u00a0 In two words:\u00a0 Patient-centric. The article consists of an interview with a nurse practitioner.\u00a0 I’ve received excellent service from …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14645,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/14645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}