A Fixer

I recently read that customers want to know more about the person selling the product and their story just as much as they want to simply “buy stuff”. So, I am going to pretend that it is a true statement and spend time on my blog telling you about me. I hope that you find it enjoyable, amusing or at the very least…….tolerable.

I am a Fixer.

                Just ask my husband, he claims that I have been trying to fix him from day one! I see a problem and I want to fix it. I think that is one reason why I pursued the medical field and landed on pharmacy. I saw how many medical problems that people were trying to treat with medications, the medications that they were using to deal with the side effects of other medications, the outrageous cost of their medicines, the increased testing required to ensure that the medications intended to help were not actually going to kill them, etc. It appeared to be a crazy spiral that needed help. That’s where my doe-eyed, naive, ambitious youth decided to throw on my super-woman cape and try to FIX it. I wanted to work with patients, families, physicians, nurses and other medical staff as part of a team to decrease the need for the high number of prescription medications for each individual. I wanted to work with this team to develop a plan to wean off of the meds that patients were taking for years and no one knew why they were even started in the first place. I wanted to increase quality of life by allowing patients to eat a normal breakfast and not one filled with multicolored tablets.

Fast forward a few years, I refuse to tell how many because a lady never has to reveal her age! I had attempted MTM (Medication Therapy Management) services and found that they were not practical in my area because they were not considered valuable enough for proper reimbursement. This is a setting where the pharmacist has a working relationship with your physician to make some changes to your medication regimen, where the patient meets with the pharmacist in a truly private area, with an appointment, and an in-depth discussion is had about each medication (the indication, side effects, desired length of therapy, etc) and plans are made to improve overall health by making changes that the patient can understand. The idea is that this will eventually lead to better health, improved quality of life and almost always to decreased number of medications over time. There are many studies that prove that this works but the financing is not always there, and let’s face it, I do have to eat and help provide for my children. There are locations where this is working but it was not available in my area at the time. Then, I stumbled into hospital pharmacy, especially critical care and emergency medicine. This is where I was able to find the team approach to healthcare that I craved. I found satisfaction and purpose in this area for many years and will always have fond memories of my coworkers that strive to provide the best possible outcome for the patients that we serve.

Things have changed in the healthcare setting.

                Healthcare is being compared to the manufacturing setting with processes and procedures to standardize everything as if patients can be equated to robots. The intention is for improved safety. The intention is admirable but the outcome is not. A pharmacy professor once said “You can memorize everything in these books but remember that the patient hasn’t read the book and their clinical response may not reflect what is written”. You can have two patients of the same age, with the same condition and they can both react very differently to the same treatment. This is where critical thinking and individualized care is needed, not default automation.

Another way that healthcare has changed is in the pursuit of patient satisfaction. Now, hear me out! I understand the need for patient’s to be satisfied with their care as they are asking and paying for professional opinions and services but we have gone too far. Hospitals are looking more like hotels than places to heal with their HD TVs, valet services, concierge services, overly manicured lawns and lobbies designed to rival the most luxurious resort. The focus has shifted from providing health services to kissing your ass from the moment you step in the door. Why is this a problem? Those individuals that have  pursued the field of healthcare want to improve your health but cannot do so if the majority of the limited time that they have with you is spent discussing the food, type of ice machine that we have or the wait time. More importantly, the money spent on the fancy luxuries must come from somewhere. This usually leads to a decrease in the number of employees, overworking the employees that are available, decrease in benefits or pay that is used to attract the best people and decreased tools to perform the job that is health care.

What does this lead to?

I call it burnout or compassion fatigue. It is an overwhelmingly sinking feeling that healthcare workers feel when they are constantly fighting an uphill battle with no end in sight. I recently watched a video by ZDogg MD that described this feeling using the term “moral injury”. He does a very good job of expressing some of the feelings of those in healthcare today. Watch the video here: https://zdoggmd.com/moral-injury/ .

What does this rambling have to do with PJ’s Projects?

I have discovered that I am not, and do not see myself in the foreseeable future, able to fix this issue. There are others that I believe can and will, given the support and time, find a way to change the focus of healthcare back to the relationships between a patient and those that strive to help them. I wish them the best of luck in their endeavors.

In the meantime, I must find an outlet for my desire to fix things. That is where refurbishing, rehabbing, recreating and showcasing the beauty of once discarded items has become an important part of my life. I may not be able to fix the healthcare system, but I CAN fix that broken chair or find a new use for a piece of wood in a pile from a century old barn.

I hope that you will continue to join me on this journey of trying to fix one project at a time.