Report Cards

When our children went to college I was a little bummed not to get a copy of their quarterly and semester grades.  Of course I could have it a condition of continued funding or housing but there was no official method of letting me know.

Of course report cards and other reporting mechanisms are not put in place to punish or reward.  They are simply part of the reporting system any managed process should have.  If something isn't measured and reported, it cannot be improved, changed, or corrected using normal management techniques.  If I don't know that one of my children is having problems with math I can't arrange help for him.  Likewise, who would want a healthcare system which gave out all sorts of advice prescriptions, and therapies but had no way of measuring the effectiveness of this effort of even how much of the ffort was used.

So it was with mixed feelings that I encountered the reporting system in our medical healthcare institutions   It is a mixed system with roots still in the "Doctor knows best" attitude. The younger, more progressive doctors like and use input from the patient and family. Where they use that input to involve the family in better and more accepted treatment plans, the patient is more likely to take prescriptions and use exercises  given.

There is also the practical matter of working with a responsible party.  I don't remember it, but I am told that during the initial part of my hospitalizations there were times when I was not only not responsible but I was actually physically threatening and certainly irresponsible.  There would have been no one for the doctors to work with in deciding MY fate.  I guess I should feel better knowing that our medical care system still cares enough, still feels patronizing enough to rat on patients - in a nice way, of course.  And for good cause, of course.

During my recent hospital stay, staff kept Carolyn updated about my progress, prognosis, prescriptions, expected therapies.  I was told who my nurse would be for that shift.

As our case managing Home Health Care Nurse was inventorying our prescribed equipment and going over all the procedures with us, she asked me whether I was "aware" of my medications.  It left no doubt in my mind as to who is reporting to whom.