Comments on: Medical Consumerism by Definition

By: Patient as Customer? « Every Patient’s Advocate

Patient as Customer? « Every Patient’s Advocate — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:01:47 +0000

[...] Jul 27th, 2007 by Trisha Torrey Part of my work is what I call health or medical “consumerism” — recognizing, talking about, and creating guidelines for patients as they regard cost of their healthcare. From nuances in purchasing health insurance, to understanding how those dollars get allocated, to ideas for saving money and even appealing health insurance payment rejections — that’s what I call health or medical consumerism. I’ve defined it in a previous blog post. [...]

By: Trisha Torrey

Trisha Torrey — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:19:31 +0000

Just,

Yes — I agree. Defensiveness isn’t good for anyone — not the provider, and certainly not the patient.

It’s really a question of mutual respect. Before now, too often the patient has respected the doctor (whether or not the doctor deserved it) and too often, the doctor didn’t respect the patient.

Now the pendulum is swinging in the other direction. But the balance of respect won’t really happen until it’s somewhere in the middle — making it mutual.

Thanks for posting, Just.

By: justordinary

justordinary — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:05:40 +0000

Yes, there seems to be a stand-off indeed.

I believe more people are now taking larger initive with the opinions, the suggestions and the care they receive. This, however is a good thing for the people, I think threatens the doctors ego and they go on the defensive “How dare they tell me how to do my job.” type attitude.

I enjoyed the post.