Shownotes
Don’t Judge Patients
At One Health we are dedicated to providing accessible and non-judgmental care. In our conversation, we explore how detrimental judging patients can be to their healthcare experience. The importance of connecting with patients without preconceived notions or biases is what brings back the sacred patient and physician relationship. Traditional healthcare systems create barriers to access with phone trees, limited walk-in availability, and strict appointment policies that put up walls that divide the patient and provider. In this discussion we talk about how Onehealth is different from this traditional system. OneHealth's approach of providing immediate and same-moment access to care is just one example of what sets us apart. The significance of health equity and ensuring equal access to healthcare for uninsured or underinsured patients should be at the forefront of all of our minds in the healthcare system. We have strategies to reduce costs for essential services like imaging studies by exploring alternative, lower-cost options. The role of healthcare providers is to act as an advocate, considering social determinants and finding the smoothest path to deliver the best care.
Transcripts
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;11
Liam
Welcome to the One Health Modern Primary Care podcast. One health is a value based primary care platform that enhances the patient experience, improves the health of individuals and populations, and reduces medical costs with a laser focus on provider wellness and care for all at One Health, we are dedicated to providing accessible and non-judgmental care. In our conversation. Doctor Cook and Doctor Sheryl we explore how detrimental judging patients can be to their health care experience.
00;00;30;14 - 00;00;32;15
Liam
Let's get started on today's episode.
00;00;32;18 - 00;00;58;27
Dr. Cook
Once you judge a patient, it's what Ehab is saying is that you're never going to really connect with that patient. You're going to bring all your idiosyncrasies, all your beliefs, all your problems to that scenario. you know, I don't believe physicians were ever meant to judge their patients. There are meant to heal patients. And so it's a matter of understanding the dynamics that bring the patient into the room.
00;00;58;27 - 00;01;29;28
Dr. Cook
You know, many patients, part of being really consumer driven health care system. I have been judged for being there. I've heard doctors say to patients, why are you here today? What a bad way to start a really a relationship, you know? Why are you here today? Well, you know, I was worried. I needed to be here. but not judging them for whatever they bring to the to the relationship is going to be key because they they bring a lifetime, however old they are, they bring a whole lifetime of things to that moment in time.
00;01;30;01 - 00;01;56;06
Dr. Cook
And that as healers. Our job is to understand what brought them there and how can we get them the three things that we, we we we so hold sacred again, longevity, better human experience and reduction, suffering and loss of a lot of individuals bring suffering and all of us do into the equation. You know, it's it's, we used it before a term in our, in our old life get to.
00;01;56;06 - 00;02;26;09
Dr. Cook
Yes. But there's, there's when it's open access and, you know, open connection. So where we put up in healthcare, so many barriers for people to get into their physician that it drives me crazy. You know, phone trees, you know, voice mail, we, you know, within primary care, there's urgent care now outside of primary care, because we weren't able to do urgent care.
00;02;26;09 - 00;02;47;16
Dr. Cook
That's that's primary care was built to do lacerations, even setting bones and etc., connecting really sick patients to where they need to go fast. Well, because the system wasn't right. We build urgent care. Now, now a patient goes somewhere else and is disconnected from this care. Here. minute clinics developed because primary care physicians didn't often do that.
00;02;47;17 - 00;03;07;19
Dr. Cook
Consumer driven. You know, I'm sick. I want to come in. Oftentimes I'll see. And in exam rooms, walk it. No walk ins. Okay. I mean, when did you plan out health care? You know, there's some health care you plan out, but a lot of health care just happens in the moment. As we're sitting here today doing this video taping, somebody cut their arm or hand.
00;03;07;21 - 00;03;26;21
Dr. Cook
And I think Doctor Collins was outside and he said come on in. Yeah. They ask, can we be seen today? Come on in. So the moment that one health is is created, it it's a, it's a I call it a sucking sound into our, our clinics and into our system. It should be a momentary same moment, access to health care.
00;03;26;23 - 00;03;50;14
Dr. Cook
And that could be in the clinic on the phone, at home, at work, let's say on app. Some way to interface with your, really trusted advocate of care quickly without ever being judged for coming in, you know, and being late to it. But we've we've always made this policy. You know, if you're late for a visit, if you've ever been around here, traffic, if it was bad.
00;03;50;17 - 00;04;06;14
Dr. Cook
Yeah. To be late for a visit is not like the end of the world. We work you in, we get you in the schedule. We're not going to say, oh, you're late, you're not here. So many times we see patients who are desperately in need of care for whatever reason. And they you know, I don't blame the patient.
00;04;06;16 - 00;04;24;19
Dr. Cook
They're late and they're turned away. And it may have taken them three months to get in for that visit, and then that may have been their only opportunity, only time they're going to be committed to getting seen. and I'm not saying punish the other patients that are there earlu or on time, but you you don't punish the patient who's late, or the patient walks in.
00;04;24;21 - 00;04;47;17
Dr. Sharawy
So let's look let's real quick one to add to it. Let's when we talk about health equity, health equity is extremely an extremely important pillar. And we could talk about health equity in so many different ways. But let's focus on the uninsured consumer that's out there. So. We would be remiss if we didn't say that somebody that doesn't have insurance in the world we live in today.
00;04;47;17 - 00;05;06;20
Dr. Sharawy
It's not an uphill battle on a lot of things, but what we can say for certain is if they don't have access at the beginning, they'll have no options to even think about anything. So when we talk about us being open access and always say yes, we say yes to everybody uninsured, over insured, no insurance, all of that, then it's incumbent on us to have to figure out how do we take.
00;05;06;20 - 00;05;24;08
Dr. Sharawy
So first we can't. What we can't do is not take care of the patient the right way. We have to say we have to take care of you this way. But then there are many, many opportunities that can impact that person's life from a financial standpoint that we should be involved in that decision making. I'll give you a couple of examples.
00;05;24;09 - 00;05;47;24
Dr. Sharawy
Okay. So one example is this. Just say we're seeing somebody and they don't have health insurance, but we've determined they need an imaging study done. So the way that the system is built, most of those imaging studies are in places that are purposefully geared towards maximizing the reimbursement from a a relationship. That's with the insurance. And boy, we could spend a lot of time talking about that, but let's just say that's what it is.
00;05;47;26 - 00;06;15;04
Dr. Sharawy
or $:00;06;15;07 - 00;06;34;06
Dr. Sharawy
So something that's that important stuff, by the way, shouldn't just be for the uninsured that we think about, that we should be top of mind for all the things that we do is to think about those things. And so that's really important. At one Health it should be important in health care, should be important for society. Now that's one example of multiple examples of that.
00;06;34;06 - 00;06;55;19
Dr. Sharawy
So important for us as physicians and providers that we really are agnostic as it relates to what are we going to recommend? The care of that patient? But we should not be agnostic to to looking at all the social determinants and all the things that are around it to make sure that we can deliver the best care. It's a teamwork, teamwork process to figure that out.
00;06;55;19 - 00;07;24;23
Dr. Sharawy
And boy, we could spend we got some of the examples of that, you know, of, of of what we've done. And it's incumbent on us to do. All right. So when I think about health equity, there's so many factors to health equity, that that cross so many things. But the most important part about how that what is giving people equal access to be able to, to engage in their health care and to have somebody who's their advocate to try and make it the smoothest way possible.
00;07;24;25 - 00;07;37;27
Liam
Thanks for listening. Please follow our Modern Primary Care podcast and visit us at One Health Modern Primary Care on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and X.
