“The Doctor will see you now.”
What did you picture when you read that?
Just a hundred years ago, many people wouldn’t picture a woman as the Doctor.
Or someone black or Hispanic or “not White”.
Or someone with face piercings and tattoos.
And today, when a patient walks in to see the Doctor, they don’t expect to see a room full of experts all present to attend the meeting to discuss the patient’s concern.
Nurses, pharmacists, bioengineers, psychologists, psychiatrists, career counsellors, financial advisors, neurosurgeons…all present at this consultation to solve the problem from every angle, without worrying about wrapping things up in under 12 minutes.
No being “referred” and having to wait to be seen at some point in the future by “the specialist”.
No having your healthcare at the mercy of disconnected medical peers each trying to decipher each other’s writing.
Instead, a commitment to treating you as a team at every stage of the journey.
We don’t expect this…even though we would probably benefit from this approach.
We don’t expect this…even though we’ve got the technology and infrastructure to make this a reality right now.
And we don’t expect this, because we’re too busy justifying the status quo.
“The Doctor will see you now.”
We get to imagine what “the Doctor” could look like, and dare to make room for that expectation.
Image: Gapingvoid