Order vs Chaos in Medical Practice
As patients look at their experiences within the medical
system and profession, do you think they find a system that is well thought out
and is practiced in an orderly fashion to facilitate the basic premise of
medicine to care appropriately for those who are ill? On the other hand, there is always the
potential for chaotic disorder when dealing with uncertainties of disease and
humans on both sides of the medical relationship. Is there evidence of chaos
characterized by unsystematic medical practice which can lead to serious
medical errors, higher cost of medical care and inattention to humanistic aspects
of patient care? If patients find
significant chaos imbedded within the medical system, what might the patients' opinions
be regarding the cause of chaos and what might be the remedy to establish
order? Do you think that something is
missing in student medical education or the medical system itself to properly
deal with the aspects of diagnosis, treatment and general patient care which, if attended to might diminish the effects
of such lack of order?
On the other hand, does the medical system seem quite
properly functioning with signs of disorder either absent or properly managed
to the benefit of the patient? What is a
patient's view? ..Maurice.
Graphic: Order and Chaos painted by me 2916 with ArtRage
posted by Maurice Bernstein, M.D. @ 9:32:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Medical system seems properly managed when it is someone responsible managing it.
A lot of the times doctors are managing the medications of their clients and their could be a conflict of interest. If the doctor owns that medical building it benefits him to give more medicines that actually needed. We gotta cover this incentive and make it safer for everyone.
I've had bad experiences in the system and know many who have. In particular with the diagnosis/treatment of psychiatric disorders or things that are a bit nebulous to categorize or may confused with them (autoimmune disorders, CFS/ME). They often take years to properly diagnose (perhaps due to the heavy overlap of symptoms between disorders, frequent comorbidity, reliance on patient histories rather than biomarkers, and a certain amount of statistical illiteracy from physicians) and treatment is often insufficient. Patients that are in bad shape are often forced to resort to the ingenuity of their own research (which most patients are not well-equipped to do and most of the resources out there don't seem to be either). I'm not sure even of the efficacy of conventional psychotherapy/supportive counseling for mood disorders (going in part off of House of Cards by Robyn Dawes). Therapists often don't perform a relatively well-performing course of treatment like CBT but pick and choose apparently to lesser effect. I've heard of people who have invested ~$10,000 in it and saw no benefits. My experience hopping from therapist to therapist was similar but I had invested less in it. Have hope about the state of technology and literature, that what we know and are capable of will be better integrated into practice. For example guys like Larry Smarr who are out there apparently predicting chronic illnesses before they strike through carefully monitoring/attention and technology. Not sure I know enough to really say but those are my hunches. Thanks for your post.
there are plenty good intentions all around,
but somehow empathy seems to have fallen
down the cracks. The problem is that patients
often are taken hostage not only to conflict
of interest with their own physicians, but
there's such the physicians themselves. For
instance, OB-gyns wanted to have an monopoly
on IUD insertion and never wanted the servi-
ce to be free. then there is overlap of
specialties, symptoms, etc.
Interesting responses to this topic. Yet, what is the solution? Is medical practice potentially so complex with so many affecting factors (financial, personality, professional degree of skills, patient variability in needs..and more) making it impossible to extract potential chaos and end up with the preservation of order? ..Maurice.
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