Daily Maestroism

DM #115

Thursday, September 15th, 2016

DM #115: Let’s face it, folks. The healthcare system as it currently stands, is broken. There is no way to guarantee quality amongst providers. There is no way to guarantee that the patient’s best interest is put first. There is no way to ensure that as a patient you won’t be treated as just another number or dollar amount.
Like my dude Joe said and I explained in DM #112, all rehab is NOT created equally. And i don’t care what you say, there will NEVER be a way to standardize care. Both the person who got all Cs and the person who got all As in PT school will earn the title of Doctor. (and for the record, the person with all Cs may in fact end up being the better clinician, but I digress)

If we want to ‘fix’ the system, we need to start by educating those who are using the system. Accept that fact that all providers will never be created equally, stop requiring more degrees and licenses that at the end of the day in no way guarantee quality, and start teaching the consumer about what a good provider looks like. Start educating the consumer about their own bodies, about their own capabilities, so that they needn’t rely solely on the advice of someone who may or may not be qualified to dispense such advice.
As a society, our movement literacy is is pretty pathetic. We know more about our smartphones then we do about our own bodies. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that everyone needs to be their own MD, but for goodness sake, we should know how to perform basic maintenance on this incredible machine that we’ve been blessed with (stay with me, I’m still talking about the human body). As a physical therapist, I consider one of my primary roles to be an educator. I cannot ‘fix’ you. It simply doesn’t work that way. But I can help you help yourself, and I can help you to learn and figure out what is best for you.
So for those of you out there disenchanted by the current state of things, it all starts with one. The system may be broken, but your patient’s ability to learn isn’t.
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