As I am, mired and dependent upon the business that surrounds healthcare, I’ve seen the best and worst of the process. This is NOT a political treatise, but rather that rare shout out to the effectiveness of the mechanics of medical provisioning.
I have extolled many of my personal fortunes along this journey. Monitoring or managing the behind-the-scenes workings of: the prescribing, approving, coordinating, delivering and dispensing - the diversity of doctor visits, plethora of procedures or tests, and the countless chemicals I have ingested or infused - is a job in itself. And throughout, the paperwork has flowed like the mighty Mississip’
Understandably, this is an unusual (and appreciated) outcome, but proof that it CAN happen. It does take a degree of patience and persistence (with a dash of sincere obsequiousness and appreciation/humor when dealing with overworked and often abused phone service folks) - but it is a proven fact that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
At the core of competency is the computerization of so many of the steps along the way. Filling out doctor forms online prior to an office visit, approval or arguing with the insurance company about the necessity for a test or treatment, electronic prescribing of my litany of medicines, auto refills of the regular ones, text messages from your local pharmacy when a prescription is ready for pick up, lab work info done at the clinic that can be ready in as little as 30:00, the combo BP, O2 & Temp Cart and all of its readings in under a minute, portals that aggregate and display results of everything from CBC to MRI. And all in the age of HIPAA - it’s nothing short of a miracle how smoothly the aforementioned moves.
As bespoke as my diagnosis and treatment experience has been thus far, this is yet another (albeit infrequently heralded) insight into what I am going through. If indeed this was fatalistically inevitable (like so much that happens in all of our lives - seemingly no one is exempt; Covid-19 has reminded us of that) then as I have often said before “this is a good time to have cancer.” I can’t imagine the frustration and time barriers that could have been the norm, during a time when I wanted nothing but efficiency, accuracy and ease of access. It seems downright incongruous to declare that I am actually blessed by bureaucracy. Go figure.
