Tag: ePatient Dave

With access to my records, I took my business elsewhere

Feb 3, 2023• 2

By EPATIENT DAVE DEBRONKART

I had a skin cancer diagnosed in November. It’s my third, and I researched the last one heavily, so I knew what I wanted (Mohs on the nose). But the hospital that did the diagnosis insisted I wait and have a consult visit in January, and *then* they’d let me schedule the procedure, probably in March.

I said I know what treatment I want – can’t I schedule the surgery now? They said, “That’s not how we do it.”

So I went home and called around. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said if I could get them the information they would book me for January, right then and there.

How long did it take me to get them the data? 15 minutes. I went back to the first place’s portal and downloaded my visit note and pathology report and emailed it all to BIDMC. An hour after I dialed the phone I had the appointment I wanted.

Patient power. I took my records – and my business – elsewhere.

This is of course a nightmare for providers who think they can lock us in. And it’s a dream come true for providers who have been longing to win us away by providing better service.

(I would have had the surgery before now, within January, but COVID struck so we postponed.)

Medical record access is empowering! Thank you to those who worked so long and hard to create these policies!

It’s also great news for providers who are trying hard to be #patientcentric: now we can easily reward them with our business!

It’ll be even better in the coming years because data #interoperability via FHIR will let apps and hospitals go GET the data … or, even better, let consumers already have their data in their own app, to do anything they want with it. True patient autonomy.

Dave deBronkart is a patient activist, speaker and author. This was originally published on his LinkedIn page

My family’s disastrous experience with a growth-driven long-term care company

Jan 12, 2023

by “E-PATIENT” DAVE DEBRONKART

Continuing THCB’s occasional series on actual experiences with the health care system. This is the secondin a short series about a patient and family experience from one of America’s leading ePatients.

I’ve been blogging recently about what happens in American healthcare when predatory investor-driven companies start moving into care industries because of, as Pro Publica puts it, “easy money and a lack of regulation.” The first two posts were about recent articles in The New Yorker on companies that are more interested in sales and growth than caring.

My mother died in October. What we haven’t disclosed until now is that it happened in horror story #3: she passed after a single week of “respite care” provided by the local outlet of a growing chain of assisted living facilities.

Our mom, a 93 year old cardiac patient, had been in the hospital for ten days, and was discharged to go “home with assistance” because she was steadily improving. The respite facility’s director, an RN, evaluated Mom in the hospital, declared her appropriate for their respite care service, and took payment in full (in advance) for two weeks.

Mom’s primary caregivers were, as usual, the family’s daughters (my sisters), who had been with her throughout the hospitalization (and for countless hours every year). Mom and they discussed the discharge plans at length. Believing that a good respite care facility was an excellent bridge for continued progress between hospital and returning home, they purchased a two week stay after discharge. An important part of the decision was the website’s promise of “Strengthening during physical therapy.”

We soon found out that the facilities and understaffing were so precarious and stress-inducing, and so many things went wrong, that we didn’t dare leave her alone. To the contrary, after just one week, our mom said she was so stressed that she wanted to get out of there, and two days later she passed away.

Mom loved to sit in this gazebo, along a tributary of the Chesapeake. Photo by my sister.

Our complaint letter and management’s response

Much has been written in healthcare and other industries about how to document and report a service problem and how management should respond.

My sisters carefully composed a detailed seven page letter to management, listing everything that went wrong, from a wrong-height toilet seat, to a shower chair with missing handrail (perfect for assisted living, not!), to the Bluetooth room key that kept failing, to staff that couldn’t recognize the on/off switch on her oxygen, to stress-inducing fire alarms with nobody coming to help. That’s only a few items; their entire letter was published yesterday on The Health Care Blog (thank you THCB!).

And the facility’s response? After walking through the whole letter with my sisters on a call, their emailed bottom line was, verbatim:

“The services listed for respite program were available to your mother.”

Well, their marketing people need to talk to their facility managers.

One family’s disastrous experience with a growth-driven long-term care company

Jan 10, 2023• 1

by “E-PATIENT” DAVE DEBRONKART

Continuing THCB’s occasional series on actual experiences with the health care system. This is the first in a short series about a patient and family experience from one of America’s leading ePatients.

I’ve been blogging recently about what happens in American healthcare when predatory investor-driven companies start moving into care industries because the money’s good and enforcement is lax. The first two posts were about recent articles in The New Yorker on companies that are more interested in sales and growth than caring. I now have permission to share the details of one family’s disastrous encounter with such a company’s “respite care” service.

The National Institute of Health says respite care “provides short term relief for primary caregivers.” It’s not medical care or memory care or assisted living; it’s not paid for by health insurance and it’s not regulated by the Federal government. It just replaces, for a while, the ordinary duties provided by family caregivers, so they can get a break.

The family’s mother was discharged from hospital to home. The primary caregivers were, as usual, the family’s daughters, who had been with their mother throughout the hospitalization. Believing that a good respite care facility was an excellent bridge for continued progress between hospital and returning home, they purchased a two week stay before taking their mother home.

It did not go well: ten days later their mother was dead.

The memorial tree planted by the family at their mother’s favorite park. Photo by Sarah.

The company’s website and lobby are gorgeous, of course. The reality was not. Media coverage talks about management’s desire to climb the rankings of biggest companies in the industry, as they acquire some facilities and build new ones. I believe the public needs to be alerted to such companies, in which management’s attention and achievements are much more on further growth than on delivering what they’ve already sold.

For all who hate computers in medicine: here’s what we got before.

Jan 8, 2020• 3

By e-Patient Dave DeBronkart

The photo below shows what “visit notes” from a doctor appointment might look like in the era before computers. Just two days before my first speech where I said “Gimme my damn data,” I had an ENT visit, and on the way out I asked for a copy of the doctor’s notes. The clerk snickered out loud and showed it to me, saying, “If you really want it….”

No joke; this is what the doctor had recorded.

Visit notes from my ENT appointment, Sept 15, 2009

Angels are Taking our Data

Dec 20, 2019• 1

By ePatient Dave deBronkart

A response to Michael Millenson’s holiday song

Angels seeking Clouds to buy
But healthcare’s not like Spotify
My health data’s here and yon
Monetized by Amazon

Gloria, in excessive profits
Gloria, it’s excessive net cash flow

Investors, why this jubilee?
You’ve done naught to soothe our pain
No care’s improved nor costs controlled
My data just fuels cap’tal gains

Gloria, in excessive profits
Gloria, it’s excessive net cash flow

Silicon Valley come and see
Start-up births thy VCs sing
Come invest on bended knee
But health care’s not yet transforming

Gloria, such excessive profits
Gloria, just excessive net cash flow

How to Become an Empowered Patient | ePatient Dave de Bronkart

Nov 21, 2018• 2

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF Health

“When doctors today say patients should stay off the Internet, I know they’re wrong.” — ePatient Dave de Bronkart

Dave de Bronkart (aka ePatient Dave) credits online communities of other patients – and access to clinical research he found on his stage 4 cancer diagnosis – to saving his life more than a decade ago. Fast forward, and this patient advocate has taken his mantra, “Let Patients Help,” to the TedTalk stage and beyond.

As health care continues to shift its focus from ‘patients’ to ‘consumers,’ how can we all be better, more empowered participants in this system that, despite its best efforts, remains closed, difficult to understand, and challenging to navigate?

I caught up with Dave to talk about his definition of what it means to be a ‘consumerist patient advocate’ and get his suggestions for how we can all better partner with our doctors and nurses when it comes to improving our health. The magic ingredient is data – namely, access to it in a frictionless and open way – so that we can be fully involved in learning about our health and able to set priorities when it comes to preserving it.

How did access to health data prevent serious health consequences in Dave’s life? He’s got more than one story to prove this point – oh, and a great little rap (yes, that kind of rap) at the end.

Get a glimpse of the future of healthcare by meeting the people who are going to change it. Find more WTF Health interviews here or check out www.wtf.health.