We Have To Do More!
The future depends on it
It is one of the greatest days of our lives!
It is the hooding ceremony! We need a better name for this…YIKES
The hooding ceremony is when we graduate with an advanced degree, such as a Doctorate. Not what you were probably thinking when you first read it.
You come out thinking you will solve all the world’s problems! You just spent the last couple of years being hyped up by your school.
Then reality strikes. You go out and the system is broken. But you can handle this. You will just figure out a solution and present it to the higher-ups and it’ll be solved!
You go find all the committees that are responsible for this issue. You get on the meeting agenda and you’re ready with your charts and graphs.
The day of the meeting comes. You almost didn’t make it because you were in with a patient. Thankfully you were at the end of the agenda.
You sprint in late and try not to make too much noise. But like most conference rooms the door is in the front of the room and you had to literally walk in front of the screen. No worries they all understand. You’re busy and the fact that you made it is great!
Now it is your turn. They call you up. You load up your slides and start talking.
You’re slaying it!
You end your presentation and ask for questions. And they’re coming. One after the other you are answering them. Getting a nod of respect from the audience. You’re about to get a standing ovation for this performance.
Then as the meeting ends they tell you “This is a great idea, but we need approval from X group that only meets every quarter. Then it goes to the Y group for approval and they meet every other month. Then it needs the okay from the president and then the C-suite.”
You’re thinking to yourself that’s not bad. We should have this squared away in the next couple of months. You leave the meeting grinning from ear to ear thinking “this is why I do what I do!” giving yourself a mental high five.
Fast forward to 2 years later…nothing has happened. The project is dead and no one tells you why. You’re just told to talk to this person that tells you to talk to that person which tells you to reach out to him, who tells you to contact them….
During this time you have already created your workaround and have seen countless other suggestions fall into the abyss. Now when a problem comes you just try to figure it out on your own. The system you were so excited to join. The system that was going to be the vessel for you to do good is now actively stopping you from doing that good.
Now you are just jaded and start to dread the thing you were striving for your whole life. You are now that person you told yourself you wouldn’t be.
We need to take control
If that story sounds familiar then welcome to the club. One that none of us wanted to be a part of.
It is time for us to be more than just clinicians. We need to get into technology, policy, community, and leadership. We should not let others dictate how we practice.
We are the ones that have to look our patients in the eye and tell them something is not covered. We are the ones that have to tell the family that their family member didn’t make it. We are the ones that take on the majority of the risks without any authority over how the system works.
I know this is the last thing people want to hear, they already have too much to do. But, healthcare is moving at a pace that we have never experienced before and if we don’t get involved it will leave us behind.
Artificial intelligence, rulings on Value Based Care, and Reimbursements which affect our salaries are all happening without us for the most part. Let’s not repeat what happened with EHRs. Where foundational technology was adopted without much input from us. It is now one of the top reasons for frustration.
We all have our paths. I chose to go down the technology route. Yours might be in policy or management. But, what we can’t do anymore is sit and complain about everything without trying to fix it from the top, or in my case the outside.
The great news is that many people in these spaces are looking for clinical experts. They just don’t know how to find us. I talk to so many startups that are starving for clinical help. They want to do right by us.
So start reaching out to people in leadership, government…
Take that promotion you deserve. Because you will also be helping. You will be helping others like you and those in the future. It is not exactly what we envisioned, but it is still fulfilling your mission of helping others.
So it’s time we take control of our destinies and build the system we envisioned, the one we were promised!
Thank you so much for your support! Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or leave a comment.
You can connect with me on LinkedIn and I am trying to be more active on Twitter. Would really appreciate a follow there!
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I hope you have a great day!