Greetings from northern Wisconsin! This weekend I’m heading outside to enjoy what is sure to be fall peak in my neck of the woods. I couldn’t be more excited in part because this comes after a nearly a month of my entire family being sick. And, knock on wood, but right now we are all healthy and ready to get outside and enjoy fall.
I won’t go into the gory details but needless to say, in the past month we’ve visited our local Community Health Clinic 11 times. We’ve spent one morning in Urgent Care. I utilized my employee health plan and Urgent Care during work one day. And, I got to experience Westfield Hospital’s Wal-Mart set-up over Labor Day weekend.
It has been an interesting ride. I work at a hospital. I serve on the board for our Community Health Clinic. I’m passionate about health disparities and have written several articles about the impact of the affordable care act in northwest Wisconsin. But, I’ve experienced all of this from a relatively healthy perspective and as someone with health insurance.
As I watch the medical bills roll in from what started as a simple round of Pink Eye, I am reminded of how fortunate I am to have health insurance. I’m also grateful that despite living in what many folks would refer to as Hicksville, I have access to amazing providers in both an Urgent Care and Clinic setting. Our public health system is strong, despite continuously having funding cut. As frustrating as the system can be, this last month reminded me of the positives including the quality care my family received.
This comes on the heels of me writing several health related articles that will come out in MN Business Magazine the next few months. The first, came out in September and focuses around a software system focused on reducing medical errors. Ambient Clinical Analytics is currently being test at the Mayo Clinic. Someday, should you find yourself in an ER, it may become part of your patient experience. Read the full article here.
As someone who just recently got around to downloading the Kindle Ap on my IPad so I could read my first e-book, I tend to be slow when it comes to technology. But, I’m all for outside the box solutions that allow providers to focus on care and not charting or attempting to read charts. Kudos to this organization for taking that step. And, I hope many others follow.
One Response
Nice post thhanks for sharing