The healthcare system is essential to ensure public well-being. It keeps a watchful eye over the spread of diseases and provides patients the care they deserve. Our medical staff – doctors, nurses, and researchers – strive to better patient care nationwide. But certain flaws in the healthcare industry undermines the credibility of our medical institutions. Let’s discuss the medical and non-medical factors responsible for weakened patient care.
Click here – Top 7 golden tips for productive employee management
THE MEDICAL STAFF
- Private life: A physician is a human being with personal issues and family problems. If the doctor is suffering from domestic or financial difficulties, we can’t expect him/her to commit to patient-carefully. Having children to take care of allows physicians less time to focus on their education. Similarly, a doctor who had a divorce may have difficulty focusing on his/her patients. If a doctor is happy in his private life, it improves his/her medical services.
- Personality: A physician’s personality hugely affects his/her performance. Physicians who are mindful of their duties to the public provide better medical services to their patients. They also need to have excellent communication skills to offer the best patient care to their clients. A confident and intelligent doctor quickly gains the patient’s trust and respect. Well-paid physicians tend to be more motivated to improve their personality traits and communication skills.
- Competence: A physician’s education and competence affect his/her performance. Physicians need to maintain up-to-date medical information. They should continuously try to enhance their medical credibility. A nurse can enlist herself into a BSN to MSN online program to increase her/his competence. But the medical staff complains of the inadequacy of medical education, and this education will prepare them for the practical application of medicine. Nurses must strive to develop them professionally to aid in better patient care.
- Incentives: The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that physicians and surgeons earn more than $200,000 every year. It makes the medical staff one of the highly-paid professions in the United States. Monetary benefits motivate a physician to focus on patient care and provide the best medical service he can. Unfortunately, not every medical professional get paid this much money. This pay gap contributes to the lack of motivation among underpaid health experts.
- Overworking: Overworked physicians often fail to address their patients’ needs adequately. The medical staff needs mental and physical relaxation to freshen up. Tired and exhausted doctors can’t provide proficient healthcare services. This “overworking” makes you question the practicability of medical education, and too much work diminishes the motivation for self-learning and self-improvement. A reduced workload will provide some relief to our doctors.
- Resources: The healthcare system demands the availability of resources up to the people’s demands and standards. A shortage of medical facilities and supplies contribute to a weakened patient-care system. Limited access to drugs or unavailability of machines can lead to an ill-performed medical service nationwide. American doctors also require a digital information system to access patients via telemedicine without any geographical hindrance.
Click here – Why Should you start Collecting Madden Coins Early?
ROLE OF THE PATIENTS
- Communication: Effective communication with patients is vital for making proper medical decisions. Any flaw in contact can lead to the emergence of misinformation. Any misguided assumption of the physician’s part may result in wrong medical conclusions. The United States has welcomed individuals’ belongings to different ethnicities. A physician needs to be sensitive to the patient’s culture and background. Language barriers can prompt patients not to answer medical questions asked by the doctor correctly. Learning about the patient’s demography helps doctors use words that are comprehensible to the patients. Effective communication is possible only when there’s a bond of doctor-patient trust in the system.
- Persistence: The quality of healthcare in the United States often makes patients persistent regarding their healthcare assumptions. Physicians habitually complain of patients who ask them to recommend a particular medicine. If the physician refuses to recommend that drug, the patient leaves and visits another doctor. Physicians find it challenging to argue with patients and explain to them why penicillin doesn’t work every time. Doctors working in the private medical industry may find some time to explain medical processes to their clients. But public health workers believe in surrendering to the patient’s demands and prescribe the antibiotics.
- Severity: The severity of illness also affects a physician’s motivation. Not every disease is the same for a doctor –not even for a layman. Rare disorders get more medical attention than a common one. Influenza doesn’t touch a physician as deeply as cancer does. A child having a heart attack gains more sympathy than an older man with the same condition. This influence directs the amount of effort the doctor is going to put into patient care. The number of deaths yesterday also affects the credibility of a medical practitioner’s performance tomorrow. A higher mortality rate disappoints physicians and makes them doubt their competence.
- Attitude: Well-behaved patients contribute to an improved patient-care system. Politeness among patients motivates physicians to treat them better. Impolite individuals sometimes lose the physician’s carefulness and sympathies. Moreover, polite patients are more eloquent about their health issues. So, they tend to ask critical medical questions. Doctors give their best to treat a patient who appreciates their efforts and acknowledges their services.
- Education: Experts have found that educated patients improve the quality of healthcare they receive. Educated patients are capable of making better medical decisions. Physicians also find it easier to deal with knowledgeable patients. A doctor can have productive conservation with a patient well-versed in primary medicine regarding his/her health. People who know their medical rights can demand an improved patient-care service from the private sector.
CONCLUSION
Unlike many European countries, the US doesn’t ensure universal healthcare coverage. But our medical system is still so advanced that foreigners rush to the United States to use American medical facilities. But the overall patient care system needs many improvements to reduce the flaws it contains. Accessibility to medicine, its availability, and its administration require numerous changes. We have to produce more trained medical practitioners to enhance the credibility of our healthcare industry.
