Putting The Care Back Into Patient Care

By Author: Dr. Amrita Sodhi
Total Articles: 5
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Just the experience of knowing that you have an illness and being in a hospital can be very terrifying. You console yourself saying that you have placed your health in safe hands and that the doctor will magically make the pain go away. You look forward to your meeting with the doctor with great hope. Finally the doctor arrives with a horde of assistants and nurses. He looks at your charts, rattles off a number of incomprehensible words, hollers out instructions to his staff, hurriedly assures you with a nod and leaves. After all, there are dozens others like you, whom he has to look after.

The situation may not be so grim everywhere, and this may very well be the rare worst-case-scenario. But we all have experienced this or heard of it in a lesser or greater degree sometime or the other. This may soon be a thing of the past as the winds of change blow over the field of medical care too. While technologies in medical care are advancing at a fast pace, the health care industry is slowly but surely realising and giving due importance to patient care too.

• Humane Touch
Patients are more than just Case Numbers ...
... or Diagnosis. Behind the broken hand or red eye is a human being who feels scared or anxious and thinks about his condition or treatment. Rather than just being handed a diagnosis and being told that they will be subjected to xyz tests or surgeries, patients appreciate it if they are involved in their treatment plans and their sentiments and opinions acknowledged.

• Tossing away Medical Jargon
Doctors are so used to medical terminologies, that they often forget that mycosis fungoides or neurocysticercosis is not something that the common man discusses every day like he does the weather or the cricket scores! A simple jargon-free explanation of the diagnosis and treatment protocol is very essential to ensure that each patient understands it at his / her level. After all, if a patient is going to have his eye stitched up, he at least deserves to hear it in a way that he comprehends.

• Individualised Approach
Every patient has a unique personality with his own likes, dislikes, fears, opinions and experiences. The services rendered to the patient should be sensitive to each person’s unique needs.

Says Dr Vandana Jain, Cornea and Lasik Eye Specialist in Navi Mumbai, “The health care industry should function like any other service industry. With increasing consumerism, clinical quality cannot be the only yardstick of quality health care. We have to realise that in addition to physicians, we are also caregivers.” Dr Jain, who is the Director at Advanced Eye Hospital, Navi Mumbai has ensured that patient safety and comfort are given prime importance at her eye hospital. Intuitive attention to patient needs and compassionate eye care are at the heart of the services rendered to each and every patient, every time.

To know more about how empathy and care are at the centre of the patient’s experience at Advanced Eye Hospital, view this video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOZe9vs-RqQ