In module
two, Being a Good Consumer and the American Healthcare system, we were
encouraged to explore what steps are necessary to take to ensure that your are
receiving the proper care. First, the example of shopping in a grocery store
was introduced to help familiarize us with smart shopping in general. Chapter
one of the text was mainly about what was good, what was bad, and how to avoid
the bad. By re-reading the text a second time, I was able to recognize that the
first chapter was a preamble to what was going to be more deeply explored in
the second chapter. In chapter two,
healthcare, and how to receive the best care as a consumer, were the topics
being discussed. Our seminar discussions focused mainly on healthcare.
I was a part of
discussion team two. We were concerned with the validity of medical websites,
and how to ensure that our healthcare provider was the right fit for us. For
example, Wikipedia and WebMD are both sites that do not contain valid and
accredited medical information. The term quackery, or the promotion of health
practices or remedies that have no compelling scientific basis, is what happens
when a celebrity or important figure can do that is much like the information
found on Wikipedia or WebMD. Despite the funny name, quackery made me
contemplate how much information is out there that we just accept as truth. http://nccam.nih.gov/health/webresources
has some helpful tips that will determine if a website is an accredited medical
website. For example, if a website is selling something, or sponsored by a
company that is selling something, it is likely that the information found on
the website isn’t trustworthy.
When discussing
how to find a healthcare professional, the main concerns amongst our group were
proximity to your home, if your insurance was accepted, and who would be
looking after the patients in the event that the doctor was unavailable. We
found http://www.nydoctorprofile.com/
and http://www.abms.org/ to be very helpful.
These websites will allow you to search your prospective doctor, and see if any
malpractice suits or complaints were made against him or her.
While reading
the text, I was interested in what a hospitalist was. A hospitalist, or a
physician who coordinates or assumes much of a patients care, is a physician
that is not commonly used in America. It’s a shame, because the personalized
care helps patients to feel relaxed, and taken care of during their hospital
stay. This link http://hospitalmedicine.ucsd.edu/people/about.shtml provides more information about the benefits
of a hospitalist.
A health
maintenance organization was a medical service that interested me. A maintenance
organization operates by having subscribers pay a monthly or yearly fee for all
healthcare and the organization controls costs and access to certain health
services. This kind of organization interested me because it seems almost like
a customizable insurance plan. http://www.medicare.gov/sign-up-change-plans/medicare-health-plans/medicare-advantage-plans/hmo-plans.html
offers more information health maintenance organizations.
By re-reading the
text, and applying my professor’s critiques to my discussion posts, I was able
to improve my participation over the course of Module two. In module three, I
hope to further improve by becoming even more active in the discussions, and
developing a system for my notes.
When considering
if I would ever try any alternative medicine, I came across http://www.pacificcollege.edu/acupuncture-massage-news/articles/1192-how-does-acupuncture-for-fertility-work-increase-chance-of-conception-without-side-effects.html
, a website dedicated to acupuncture. Acupuncture has been used to increase
chances in fertility. Infertility is a common issue, one that many of my
friends and family members have dealt with. Because it causes the body no harm,
and the main goal of acupuncture is to reduce stress, and reducing stress has
proven beneficial with fertility, I would be open to researching acupuncture,
if I wanted to reduce my stress levels.
