Wednesday, February 11, 2009

WORKING WITH HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS

The ONE Thing

Ideally, each interaction with a health care professional, whether physician or pharmacist, will be with the same person you have seen previously. That person will be knowledgeable about the patient’s past medical history and have personal concern for the patient. Plus, the patient and caregiver would have a degree of comfort and ease that would promote candor between the provider, the patient, and the caregiver.

Such ideal situations seldom occur anymore. But, the nanny or au pair can act to minimize problems that might occur with changing providers.

The au pair or nanny should try use the same doctor for the child, or the same group of doctors, so both the office’s medical records and the physician can be used to highlight the individual patient’s medical history and lead to proper diagnosis and treatment.

When changing doctors, the previous office must send medical records to the new doctor. It is a wise precaution for the nanny to record all office visits and for the parents and for her own knowledge.

The same concept applies to a pharmacy. Try to use one pharmacy so that the pharmacist has prescription records and allergy information in the computer system and can check for potential drug interactions. Even so, the nanny should keep a list of drug allergies and a list of all medications, herbs and vitamins taken by the child.

Using one doctor or one pharmacy may not be factors a nanny can control. But the nanny can be the one that the parent and the child can rely on to assure that best information is available to the health care providers about the patient.

Have you ever had any issues with health care working with children?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The mother that employs me keeps changing doctors for the children. It is obvious to all but her (the mom) that one of her sons is autistic. What lever or type I am not sure because the mother refuses to bring her son to the specialists the pediatricians keep referring to her. The six year old son typically seems normal upon greeting him. But soon after a playdate he always plays alone. He plays happily for hours under a blanket in his room. His other classmates draw details on faces and bodies while this boy just draws squiggly lines: no eyes or mouth (sign he does not related to emotions right). He likes playing in a dark pantry with cheerios on the floor. He hates the noise of the toilet so often poops in his pants because he is afraid of the toilet. He draws on the walls, opened the car door while I was driving, and much much more...

Understandably the mother is defensive and in denial. But rather than following pediatrician and teacher advice she just keeps changing schools and doctors rather than accepting the help the child needs.

I love the concept of one doctor for the chidren's entire childhood. The concept of bonding with one doctor for all the children is not happening. I keep saying "Well if so many different doctors think this...maybe it is something we should look at.." But the mother just adamantly disagrees.