In its essence, Relationship Medicine is the practice of advanced, learned, scientific based, compassionate healing arts driven by the Golden Rule.
Do onto others, as you would have them do onto you.
(That's my definition, at least).
Healthcare, the delivery of health-related services to patients and consumers, in the United States is in grave peril.
Our January 2023 newsletter will focus on the total lack of delivery of value in US healthcare. Briefly, fiscal responsibility in government-funded healthcare has been abysmal. Corporate medicine and venture capital buyouts have gutted value and focused on maximizing profitability. Middleman entities and profit driving units such as pharmacy benefit managers (PBM’s) have extracted billions (and now trillions) of dollars out of the system, with little to no benefit to patients.
It's probably not a surprise that American healthcare ranks near the bottom of value with every other developed country in the world. (see figures)
Our goal at The Allergy Station is to change that. Continuing down this path, as a nation, and as patient-consumers, is patently unacceptable.
Elite academic journals write weekly and monthly articles condemning proposed systems which fall flat without the delivery of any value to us, the patients, and consumers. Personally, after spending nearly $400,000 and seven years as a patient to heal a broken foot, I can assure you I have carefully reviewed and studied value in healthcare. It’s sparsely distributed. You must know how to get good value.
Simply put, the current system is broken and breaking.
We hope as patients, friends, and a community, that The Allergy Station offers exquisite value to you and us collectively.
I would love to share with you 3 examples of where our system goes above and beyond the norm.
We have 45 college students deployed back to their campuses. As student health services (SHS) across these college campuses reeled to come back to appropriate services, we have had to get creative with caring for our patients. This includes allergy shots/immunotherapy. Some campuses support allergy immunotherapy internally. Other campuses do not have the support. On several campuses, we have students helping other students with rides, mentoring, emotional support, and a variety of other value-added benefits. This is the value of our community.
Here locally, we have an active oral immunotherapy program for food desensitization. As we have had patients "graduate" from the program, the rigorous & grueling schedule can be a daunting consideration for parents and families who are interested. We have created an informal network of support and assistance. This is the value of community.
We have a broad span of immunologic, respiratory, allergic, and other disorders which walk through our waiting room, exam rooms, treatment areas and telehealth opportunities. Our patients support each other by donating I needed medication's, equipment, furniture, health related devices and showing an immense level of respect and friendliness in the waiting room.
This is the definition of community and therefore - relationship medicine. It cannot and will not be replicated in big corporate medicine.
We’ve also constructed our care delivery and telecommunications platforms (group chat, video/Zoom/FaceTime, etc.) to be flexible, personal, convenient, and adaptable to each patient’s and family’s specific needs and situation. This is relationship medicine. Too often government restrictions, regulations and edicts create major roadblocks, which are good for high value patient care.
We are frequently asked by prospective new patients why we do not use health insurance as our primary financial mechanism. Simply put, relationship medicine is an entirely different model of care, which necessitate creative structures and delivers entirely different results.
We deeply appreciate your friendship, our relationship and will always treat you according to the Golden Rule!
Join us for our January 2023 Newsletter. And let us know if you enjoy reading or have topics you’d like covered.
There will be more frequent activity on Socials and members-only webinars in 2023!
We wish you the happiest and healthiest New Year!
Travis, and Team @ The Allergy Station
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