Polls, surveys that have looked at demoralization among clinicians find that the
computers are themselves causing tremendous demoralization.
As a result, Gawande explains, "we've all become data entry workers, spending more and more time entering data and not doing what is really the work of taking good care of patients."
And be forewarned: concern about your health and/or health care may result in a call from patient resources!
But first, I must mention the month of July in 2013. In that month, I had traveled to several UW Health facilities across the city of Madison, from the far east side to the far west side to hospitals and clinics in between. It is also the month, UW Health discovered that I was once exposed to tuberculosis. Mostly likely, I was exposed to it in Ethiopia. I taught there for a year, but I had been back since 2003. They told me I might have liver cancer too!
For the TB, a City of Madison public health worker called almost everyday, even when the TB sputum culture came up negative. She had to come to my house. I stood my ground. You never know what could happen in the future. Down the road. She recommended a cocktail of drugs to be consumed over nine months.
And what of the side effects?
Silence!
I know a great deal about the past! I wondered if she had ever encountered such a stubbornness--insolence?--from any other Black woman in this town? I felt sorry for her. Her will had been profaned by some crazy radical Black woman. She left behind brochures on tuberculosis without hope, for she knew, with this woman, the brochures would end up in the trash bin.
Back at UW Health, "providers" order an MRI for liver cancer.
Needless to say, I am a bit frustrated by August. My family currently consists of young and much younger siblings living elsewhere who only know an old sister, possibly an "old" lady now! Friends are the same age or older but spread out across the country. I did not inform everyone about this circus that I thought would come to an end--soon.
But it continued on!
A nodule or two had shrunk! And--does cancer shrink? The results of countless blood studies did not detect cancer. The MRI for liver cancer: negative. Aging spots! There will be 4 CT scans in total. My lungs were last scanned on December 27, 2013; however, the 2 CT scans taken by August showed the remaining nodule or two had not changed.
Good for me, but maybe not so good for the medical institution caring for my health.
So I receive a call from the UW, Patient Resources. Perhaps you would like to talk with a counselor regarding your frustration?
And what is the counselor's spiel after a few visits?
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