Locating Quality Care
By Jane A Malkoff MSN RN NP
Positioning one’s self to receive quality care is a must. We all want to be positioned to locate quality care in the health care system – from home care to primary care office visits to emergency hospital visits. Do we have problems with our built-in quality location devices when it comes to health care? Do we ask more questions and demand more information when we buy dinner out or purchase shoes strings?
It may very well be there is simply not enough transparency in the health care system for even a fleeting chance to evaluate the products, costs or outcomes being purchased before the purchase is made. This doesn’t occur in any other consumer driven market. Yes, health care is consumer driven and it is shop-able! As consumers, we have not tolerated lack of tranperency in any other market the way we have the health care system.
Quality in the health care system has been defined as having the six domains of effectiveness, efficiency, equity, patient-centeredness, safety and timeliness. These are great but can you imagine making certain your health care needs are met correctly without having access to any specific information on those six domains in regard to your specific area of need? Yet, it is our responsibility now and as we grow older to have our health care needs met correctly. To do this, we can learn to be better consumers/shoppers. We can discover more about what it is we are shopping for and we can never settle for opaque systems. We can begin to push the needle on growing the transparency trend in health care as related to costs and outcomes by making informed choices.
Consider taking an all-out attitude of shop-ability when it comes to your healthcare. Think word of mouth, think on-line reviews, ask the cost of each component, think about outcomes. Share your health care consumer experiences with others, speak your questions and concerns freely when in the health care system, work to be an active participant versus a passive recipient in all health care interventions, treatment plans and care plans.
You are a valuable consumer. Your voice counts. Locating quality care can begin with you. Get comfortable positioning yourself now and leading the way into the future by setting transparency as your rule when purchasing health care services.