{"id":10592,"date":"2011-10-28T19:33:45","date_gmt":"2011-10-28T23:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmedicine.org\/epatients\/?p=10592"},"modified":"2011-10-28T19:33:45","modified_gmt":"2011-10-28T23:33:45","slug":"lisa-gualtieri-must-waiting-be-inherent-to-medical-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2011\/10\/lisa-gualtieri-must-waiting-be-inherent-to-medical-care.html","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Gualtieri: Must waiting be inherent to medical care?"},"content":{"rendered":"
This guest post by Lisa Gualtieri originally appeared in the author’s health blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBy the time you see the doctor, you\u2019re either dead or you\u2019re better,\u201d my mother-in-law told me. She had to have multiple tests, all with long waits to get the appointments and the results, before her health insurer would allow her to make an appointment with a specialist.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWaiting is the bane of the medical system,\u201d a former student, an RN, concurred. Advances in medicine and technology have improved medical outcomes, but have often resulted in more waiting at a time when every other aspect of life is speeding up. Waiting is a systemic problem exacerbated by advances in medicine and by health care reform. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Some of the ways we wait:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Waiting Reduction<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We all have to wait. Waiting is an inherent part of being ill. But here are some ways to reduce wait time or lessen the impact:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Quality of Health Care Is Paramount<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n It is important to maintain perspective: quality of health care is paramount. Everyone wants the best care possible and sometimes waiting is unavoidable. With no health advantages to waiting, put , as Dr. Ted Eytan<\/a> said, “the patients’ cost of care, which includes the time they spend waiting, into the equation. Everything follows from that.” There is no reason to accept that it\u2019s part of our health system, but, instead to work to reduce waiting, and to reduce the impact of waiting.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This guest post by Lisa Gualtieri originally appeared in the author’s health blog. \u201cBy the time you see the doctor, you\u2019re either dead or you\u2019re better,\u201d my mother-in-law told me. She had to have multiple tests, all with long waits to get the appointments and the results, before her health insurer would allow her to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[21,114],"tags":[4683,1283,4693,4691,4685,3621,307,4682,4689,4695,503,4684,2318,4690,4692,4694,4698,4687,4686,4688],"coauthors":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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