Ahmed Aly, MPT, MHA
Crowded Clinic
Healthcare quality can be achieved through following the guidelines of number of attributes that can be performed by the providers with the interaction with the patient and the health insurers. ( Ransom, Joshi, Nash, & Ransom, 2011 ) Patient centeredness is one of these attributes that focuses on the qualities of compassion, the level of empathy with the patient, and how the plan of treatment is individualized for that particular patient and not the same for any patient ! as the goal of the patient centeredness is “to modify the care to respond to the person, not the person to the care” ( Ransom, Joshi, Nash, & Ransom, 2011 )
There are different principles in order to apply the patient centeredness and diverse the clinic environment and make it more welcome to the patients, such as; considering all the team members as a caregivers and that’s from the housekeeping to the CEO, as each and everyone who is in the clinic has to make the patient as the first priority, care must be customized and reflects the patients needs and values and as mentioned above, the customized care is the best way to show the patient centeredness and make the patient comfortable, sharing information with the patient and the patient’s caregiver, the care must be taken in a peace and comfort environment, patient safety should be a priority, transparency should be a rule in the patient care.( Rodak, 2012).
Advanced Access
There are three models of having an access for the clinic; it could be traditional model ( where the schedule is hundred percent booked in advance and the same day urgent cases may be dismissed or scheduled in between the booked sessions, or come during the physicians’ lunch time ), the curve-out-model where half of the schedule is booked in advance and the other half is held for the same day urgent cases, while non urgent same day cases will be deflected in the future), the Advanced Access, that’s where most of the schedule is available for same day booking and that could be urgent, routine visit or preventive cases, and only cases that couldn’t make it on the same day or the cases that the physician advised to follow up later have to schedule for a future visit.( Murray, 2000 )
Once the advanced access is applied within that crowded clinic, the patient will not be longer has to wait for so long in order to be seen by the physician, so the patient condition will not be changing by waiting for a long time until the patient will be seen, also the patient wont be shown up in a different day because there is no confusion about telling the patients that they can come today ! also the efficiency and the patient satisfaction will increase because the patient will be able to see the physician on a regular basis and also will be able to see the same physician who have been seen with before, because that physician won’t be overbooked with the other non scheduled patients who showed up with no appointments. Also the patient won’t need to do a lot of arrangements for getting an appointment with the physician, however the patient would know that at anytime that he/she feels sick, a same day appointment can be scheduled with the physician. .( Murray, 2000 )
Two years ago I had a patient with traumatic brain injury, and the patient was under coma for couple of weeks, and the patient was Indian, the patient’s wife and the father had to travel from India after the accident for both of them to be the caregivers resopnsible for the patient and they were available and around him 24/7, they used to have a scent that in their believe, it is the only way out for the patient in order to wake him up for the coma, and they used to spread that scent inside and outside the room, in the corners outside the building, and to the extent that they put some of that scent inside the Peg tube ( feeding tube ) for the patient. We had a care plan meeting with the patient’s caregivers in order to hear from them their point, and we explained that we do respect their culture and religious, but continuing suing that scent could turn into a harm for the patient, and they can limit their use away from any of the patients equipments.
I would love to have more knowledge about these kind of patient populations, as without knowing much about their believes, that could develop some kind of culture barriers and they may do some harm for the patient without any intension to do so ! also when I have that knowledge about the patient cultures and believes, I will have more creditability when I will be trying to convince the caregivers about the appropriate or inappropriate actions that they may do, and that will lead to build more trust and increase the efficiency of the treatment.
There are different ways of increasing my knowledge and information about these kind of patient populations, and that’s by increase the interaction with the patient family and engage with more conversation with them about their believes and cultures, also by reading different books that are
talking and explaining different cultures in depth and specifically talking about how these cultures can impact their thoughts and how serious it is in their daily life, search the internet is a good way to know more knowledge and asking any of my friends who have the same culture or religious about their believes that would help also having a good idea about specific cultures or religious.
References
Sabrina Rodak, 10 Guiding Principles for Patient Centered Care, 2012. retrieved from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/10-guiding-principles-for-patient-centered-care.html
Mark Murray, Same Day Appointments: Exploding The Access Paradigm, 2000. retrieved from http://www.aafp.org/fpm/2000/0900/p45.html
Joshi, M.S, Ransom, E.R, Ransom, S.B, & Nash, D.B. (2014). The Healthcare Quality Book ( Third ed. ). Arlington, VA: Health Administration press.
