Some Days Count More Than Others

Which is more important – the day you receive a diagnosis or the days of treatment that follow? The surgery or the recovery? Does a short-lived healthcare incident matter more or less than the many days that follow it?

A comment I’ve heard many times over the years as a consumer advocate for pregnant women is, “Why do people spend so much time worrying about the day of the birth, but they don’t invest the same energy into learning how to parent after the child is born?” While I understand the thought process at play, I disagree with the implication that the birth, which is only one day, is less important than the ongoing tasks of raising a child.  Similarly, the treatment of an illness can be a lengthy process, while the diagnosis stands out as a pronouncement, and the recovery from surgery happens over weeks and months, while the surgery itself only takes a few hours. Yet the diagnosis, the surgery, and the birth, while shorter in duration, lay the foundation for what follows. They act as ‘pivot points,’ which affect the way everything that follows unfolds. Because of this, it is worth investing the time and energy to make sure you are preparing for those important moments properly.

People make the mistake of believing that healthcare providers all practice the same way, hospitals all provide services equally, that care providers will tell them everything they need to know, and that our advanced healthcare system almost guarantees a good outcome. But evidence shows that there are big differences in quality of care between providers and facilities, and patients have to be proactive in learning about their healthcare needs and advocating for themselves. Just trusting “the experts” without checking to make sure that trust is warranted for your case can lead to serious and lengthy consequences.

If you aren’t seeing a truly skilled doctor or getting the right diagnostic tests, the diagnosis may be incorrect and all the treatment that follows will be less effective or not effective at all. A surgery that is botched can make recovery longer, more painful, or even cause greater damage than it was meant to correct. People clearly remember the birth of a child for their whole life, including how they were treated, what was said to them while they were in labor, and whether they felt fear or joy. Those memories form the basis for their feelings towards their baby and their sense of competence and as they do all those feedings and diaper changings for their newborn. Clearly, getting things right from the very start of a healthcare journey has an effect on how rocky or smooth the road is and where the journey ends up.

The secret to an easier journey is in the preparation. Those ‘pivot points;’ those days that stand out because they set a new life course, rarely stand alone. Instead they are the result of the work you did, or didn’t do, to get you to that point in the journey. So is it worth it to get that second or third opinion on a diagnosis? Is it worth it to interview surgeons and find healthcare centers of excellence for surgeries and procedures? Is it worth the time and energy to prepare for birth?

Absolutely.

What happens in the long-term needs planning and attention too. Having knowledge, making informed decisions, and being prepared for the treatment process, the post-surgical recovery, or parenting shouldn’t be ignored. It’s all important. Don’t make the mistake, though, of downplaying the ‘pivot point’ because it’s only one day. Some days count more than others.

Michal Klau-Stevens is a professional speaker and healthcare consumer advocate. She is a maternity consultant, pregnancy coach, and expert on consumer healthcare care issues, Past President of BirthNetwork National, a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, and mother.  Her website is TheBirthLady.INFO. Find her on LinkedIn and on Facebook at The Birth Lady page!

Five Steps to Better Healthcare

Do you know how to get the best healthcare to meet your family’s needs? As the healthcare system gets more complicated, appointments with your doctor get shorter, and costs continue to rise, getting individualized, evidence-based care is a challenge. Personal healthcare advocacy skills are techniques to get information and take action so you can make standardized care a better fit for your and your family. They include understanding some basics about how the modern healthcare system works, knowing what actions you can take to increase your chances of getting the care that’s best for you, knowing what questions to ask and how to make informed decisions, and knowing your rights as a patient. With some personal advocacy skills under your belt, you can learn get the most out your healthcare. Here are five things you can do that can help you get better care.

1. Understand the business of healthcare
Healthcare in America is a business. There is a strong incentive for profit. You need to understand how doctors and facilities make money and get paid, or you may end up paying for tests and procedures that aren’t medically necessary. You need to be an informed consumer, like you’d be if you were buying any other big-ticket consumer item.

2. Get clear on your values, needs, and desires
You are the expert on you. Your input is important, so you need to be clear on how much control you want over decision-making, what your care philosophy is, what your medical, physical, emotional, and practical needs are, and what you want and expect while being a patient. Even great doctors need your input. They can’t know everything about you, so it’s up to you to convey your thoughts and opinions throughout the care process. Communicating your values, needs, and desires is the key to getting individualized care.

3. Meet your community
Connect with people who can guide you to great doctors and facilities. Ask around, get referrals, and interview providers. Tour facilities. Learn about all the different types of care that might be available in your community. Connect with others who have similar health issues, and use their knowledge to expand your own. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, when there is so much crowdsourced knowledge so close at hand. Create systems of support so you’re not going through your health needs alone. Supportive communities can literally be life savers.

4. Build a strong team
Find providers who match your philosophy of care, so you’ll be more likely to have a good working relationship. Work with providers who go the extra mile to spend the time you need to understand your health situation and make sure you’re actually being cared for. If you keep getting a nagging feeling that it’s not a good fit between you and your provider, switch. Your health is too important to leave in the hands of someone who is hard to work with, or you don’t trust.

5. Have effective conversations with your care providers
Do research on your condition, so you understand the basics and can talk about it quickly and efficiently with your doctor. Ask BRAIN questions (watch this video to know what those question are), and speak up for yourself. You won’t get the things you need if you don’t ask for them, and doctors and other caregivers can’t read your mind. You need to speak up about your values, needs, desires, thoughts, and opinions to get care that focuses on you.

Do these five things, and you’ll be better prepared, better informed, and ready to take actions to get care that works for you and your family.

Michal Klau-Stevens is a professional speaker and healthcare consumer advocate. She is a maternity consultant, pregnancy coach, and expert on consumer healthcare care issues, Past President of BirthNetwork National, a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, and mother.  Her website is TheBirthLady.INFO. Find her on LinkedIn and on Facebook at The Birth Lady page!

Got Healthcare Questions? Use Your BRAIN!

Michal Klau-Stevens is a professional speaker and healthcare consumer advocate. She is a maternity consultant, pregnancy coach, and expert on consumer healthcare care issues, Past President of BirthNetwork National, a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, and mother.  Her website is TheBirthLady.INFO. Find her on LinkedIn and on Facebook at The Birth Lady page!

Do Your Research

By Michal Klau-Stevens

Two of the most powerful tools a patient has in the healthcare system are informed consent and informed refusal, and the key word in both of those phrases is INFORMED. You make good healthcare decisions that match your needs when they are based in scientific evidence and thoughtful consideration of your health requirements, emotional desires, and spiritual necessities. While you can gain clarity on the most of these with thought and introspection, the scientific evidence piece will usually require you to do some research.

There is plenty of information available online to give you an overview of whatever health condition you are facing, along with information about the benefits and risks of various treatment options available.

Except in cases of emergency, there is time to do research before making a medical decision, and it is wise to take the time to familiarize yourself with the science underlying your healthcare needs and to explore your options. Your doctor may not be aware of all your concerns, which include the emotional and spiritual ones as well as the physical ones, and may prioritize them differently than you would. Your doctor just might make different choices than you. To reconcile these differences in approach, you need to have a deep enough understanding of the medical aspects of your treatment that you can have a meaningful conversation about your care. You need to be prepared to ask specific questions and uncover any preferences or biases which would set you on a treatment path different from where you feel comfortable going.

PubMed, websites ending in .gov, and advocacy websites relating to your specific concern, such as the American Cancer Society, or the American Heart Association can offer high quality evidence-based information that is easy to understand. Newspapers, magazines, and personal blogs may vary widely in their reliability and should be used with caution.

You will bear the results of your treatment, not your doctor. That fact alone changes the dynamics of the decision-making process from a patient’s perspective. While your instinct may be to place the burden of choice fully onto your doctor because he or she is “the expert,” that may not be in your best interest. You are the expert on you, and you bring valuable assets to the process which should not be discounted. It is your right and responsibility to give your informed consent or refusal to any test or procedure your doctor suggests as part of your treatment. As with any other right or responsibility, it takes effort on your part to fully benefit from it. It’s worth the effort, and your health depends on it.

Michal Klau-Stevens is a professional speaker and healthcare consumer advocate. She is a maternity consultant, pregnancy coach, and expert on consumer healthcare care issues, Past President of BirthNetwork National, a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, and mother.  Her website is TheBirthLady.INFO. Find her on LinkedIn and on Facebook at The Birth Lady page!