Ideas about health care are continuously evolving. One vision shared by many, is a medical future characterized by team-based patient care.
As explained by this piece in the NY Times, this vision would involve converting traditional medical centers to "patient centered medical homes," where patients are seen by a team of doctors rather than just one individual. This team of doctors would also focus on cost cutting measures like preventative care. The overall goal of this vision is to create efficient, high quality care at an affordable price.
Sounds nice right? Unfortunately this dream is not yet a reality. 36 small practices tried to make this conversion and have run into a number of issues. The primary issue being the time and difficulty of converting traditional medical centers into patient centered medical homes. Eventually, I believe this will become a reality for the U.S. health care system. It just needs more time.
After reading the article and my post, what issues do you see arising with team based care? It sounds nice on paper... but will it work in a real setting?
Theoretically this is a great idea. Making the process of medical treatment a ongoing effort as opposed to treating single episodes is sure to guarantee better recovery and treatment for patients. Having said this, looking at this approach in a realistic sense there are numerous potential hurdles both doctors and patients will face. One of my concerns would be for the patients. Would they feel comfortable not relying on a single doctor- I for one can’t imagine I would enjoy seeing a different doctor every time I went in for treatment; I feel it depersonalizes the whole process. Doctor-Patient Roles and relationships can be so critical in the process of recovery, how would taking the personal element of this away affect the patient? Another concern is information sharing- would technology be up to par to handle such an organizational structure? The concept has only been tested in family-own and operated businesses, but would it work in larger organizations? And finally, from a legal standpoint- wouldn’t this type of treatment exempt doctors from taking responsibility for medical mishaps, after all if there is shared treatment, shouldn’t there be shared responsibility? I think our healthcare structure has a long way to go before we are stable enough to take on such an integrated medical treatment plan.
ReplyDeleteClaire-
ReplyDeleteYou make a lot of great points, so thanks for taking the time to comment.
I agree with you that team based care still has a long way to go before it can work. I especially agree with your point about depersonalizing medicine. With the evolution of technology, this has become a hot issue.On one hand you have this great technology that can save lives...but it comes at the cost of depersonalizing a very important thing: the doctor-patient relationship. There needs to be a middle ground where patients can still get quality care without sacrificing the personalization we have all come to expect.
I really liked your last point too. I've never really thought about the legal aspect of all this. With the number of medical mal practice cases out there and medical mistakes...you raise a valid point. I think if doctors are truly functioning as a team and agreeing with each procedure before it is done, then responsibility would have to be shared.
Thanks again for your input!