Effective care for patients doesn’t depend simply on technology or surgical technique for treating a condition, whether it be a lost limb, head trauma, severe burns or other injuries that unfortunately have become more common within the U.S. military since the start of current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It requires a systemic approach—an appropriate bedside manner that considers all of the many factors involved in healing, including a patient’s personal life.
In this issue’s cover interview, Army Secretary Pete Geren notes that the Army seeks to take as holistic an approach as possible to individual health care, from emphasizing preventive care for all sorts of afflictions to taking a group approach to combating suicide by eliminating the stigma of psychological counseling. Medical procedures are important, of course, but sometimes the ultimate success in medical treatment rests perhaps just as much on the effective marshaling of human resources. At the Army’s several dozen “warrior transition units,” each individual is assigned a primary care manager, nurse case manager and squad leader.
“Our goal of this is to meet the needs of the whole person, not only the medical needs and the rehab needs,” Geren says. “We are committed to helping the soldier heal and at the same time develop life skills—coping skills or professional skills—to continue serving in the Army or to transition to the VA and civilian life.”
But technology can certainly play an important role in making sure the DoD medical community treats, as is often said, the patient and not the disease. Sometimes the worst part about being in a hospital is not being sick, but feeling helpless in the face of an uncomprehending, seemingly uncaring bureaucracy. If nothing else, the technological advances of electronic health records, for example, should help individuals feel they are indeed known and understood by the health care “system,” a feeling that in itself could go a little way toward helping them get better.
Ted McKenna, Editor This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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