What we measure, what we pay for, how we define success: These things should align with what matters most to the patient, their overall health, and their life experience. This internal medicine physician hits it on the head, when she says “We define 'right' as caring for patients intelligently, holistically, and kindly, yet we have shackled patient care to incentive and payment systems that are uncoupled from this definition."
As the COVID pandemic continues to stretch on, many of us are experiencing higher levels of stress, anxiety, and compassion fatigue. These exercises to help you remain empathetic, while also practicing self-care, might help mitigate some of that stress.
Colleen McNally, 3rd Conversation co-founder and patient advocate, pulled out this quote from Asaf Bitton’s piece on the future of primary care as being particularly meaningful for her, “Every day we accept the idea that all we need to do is just get back to where we were on March 1, 2020, is a day we do a disservice to the patients and communities that we serve. Every day we accept inertia, conventional thinking, and a lack of zeal for transformative change, we do a disservice to ourselves as providers, who are burning out and losing faith in this profession.”
It’s not about returning to the status quo. Rather, we should seize this opportunity to create the primary care and health care systems that we want to see – ones that value relationships and well-being for all.
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