If I Could Change One Thing...

"adapt or die.

as many times as we’ve heard it, the lesson doesn’t get easier.

the problem is we’re human. we want more than just to survive.

we want to love. we want success.

we want to be the best that we can be.

so, we fight like hell to get those things.

anything else feels like death."

:meredith grey:

If I could change one thing in the healthcare arena, it would be the formation of Comprehensive Medical Care.

If they could work together

Why does this concept remain overwhelmingly elusive? Every time I close my eyes, I imagine what our world could be like if doctors and nurses and therapists and holistic healers could work together. I imagine walking into appointments filled with round tables of providers, ready to roll up their sleeves and banter back and forth until new ideas have been suggested and vetted and are ready for action. I think about each of the individuals I have sought out; detailed my medical history with; undergone testing at their recommendations; and attempted, struggled with and eventually rejected medications alongside them.

I think about the timing in my relationship with several providers where the words “I don’t know” stung against my skin – like a slap I wasn’t in the least expecting. I think I always just felt like if they could bounce ideas off of someone else, if they could think out loud, maybe those relationships could’ve been saved. Maybe I wouldn’t have had to see so many different providers with no results.

What if they all sat down together

What if, crossing lines and boundaries and professional “rules”, what if each of those individuals – for example: my internist, my gastroenterologist, my rheumatologist, my neurologist, my gynecologist, my reproductive endocrinologist, my therapist, and my psychiatrist – what if they could all sit down together. If I booked an appointment with each of them, on the same day, for the same hour time slot, and asked them each to meet me at a neutral location, if I brought every record, every test result, every piece of information I could possibly share, what would happen?

Would they work together?

Would they believe that they could each have knowledge, experience, perspective that could contribute to the overall whole? Would they feel like together, they could possibly offer me something different than the “I don’t know” they have at times provided individually? Beyond an answer or a diagnosis or a label or anything that would help me psychologically to deal with  the physical challenges – could they together explore ways in which I could optimally manage my symptoms? Ways in which my quality of life would be any better than it is or has been in the past?

I will likely never know the answer to that question. But if I could change one thing about the healthcare system, this would be it. The development of, and option for patients to experience comprehensive medical care. Two heads are better one. Three heads are better than two. Maybe together, the individuals that we trust could do more, they could be more. Maybe their expertise must fit together with that of another or many others before understanding all of the ways in which our bodies are inefficient, challenges, compromised.

Hey, a girl can wish, right?

If you've been lucky enough to experience team-based medicine, I'd love to hear your experiences below!