Progressive Place

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Holistic/Integrative Health Care: What'll it take?

Idea: A hospital, and by extension a medical complex, that actively solicits customers and employees who are committed to living healthy lives, in all possible ways. Is it possible? What would it take?

Some aspects:
Integrative, alternative, low-cost, environmentally friendly, low-tech, low-footprint, low-consumption, non-invasive, inspired, spiritual, down-to-earth, sustainable.
Compassion for the care-givers who feel the suffering all around them, and need desperately to do something with that pain besides bury and drown it.
Hospitals escape the me-too competition that's created over-capacity in glamorous, expensive specialties.
Nurses get the respect and influence commensurate with their knowledge, responsibility, and wisdom.
Physicians know, think about, and take care of patients, not insurance. Any investments in real estate, practice management firms, and such are strictly on their own time, not part of their jobs.
Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants lift the unreasonable burden of responsibility off the physicians.
Patients lose the self-destructive tendency to sue everybody at the drop of a hat.
"Integrative" comes to include things like a patient-centered, unified health information network; community involvement in lifestyle choices, such as recreational activities, diet, and addiction reduction...
And on a related subject: The P in HIPAA stands for portability, not privacy. It's distressing how few medical practitioners know that. Believe me, I've asked.

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