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#OperationSpotlight

If you haven’t already heard, this month has been heavy for healthcare professionals.

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Recent studies revealed that American healthcare workers are at an increased risk of suicidal ideation1 and in some cases TWICE as likely to die from suicide as the average citizen.2 Two weeks ago, pharmacists in Kansas staged walk-outs to protest their working conditions.3 Last week over 75,000 healthcare workers for Kaiser Permanente did the same thing.4 Today, pharmacists at Walgreens across the nation are following suit, citing that they no longer feel they can serve patients safely, given the help and resources they’ve been consistently denied. (#OperationSpotlight)



It’s a LOT.


I am a PATIENT advocate, which means that my priority is the patient. But I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about how these issues directly relate to the dysfunction that the patient ends up paying for on the back end. And I’m not just talking about longer wait lines.


Where do we go from here? Because we have to do things differently.


All of these headlines brought back a memory of an encounter I had as a young pharmacist.


I was walking out of the pharmacy toward the restroom that was located one door over and in the process, had a patient follow me, cursing me out because in her estimation, she had already been waiting too long.


I was almost 8 months pregnant, it was about 2pm and that was my first bathroom break OF THE DAY (forget about a lunch break or any other sort of break...those are nonexistent in most pharmacy retail situations, even if the pharmacy does “close” for 30 minutes. This one didn’t).


And you know what… despite all the crazy pregnancy hormones and the pain, hunger and exhaustion I was feeling at that exact moment, I didn’t get upset with her or even about the situation in general. I remember being very matter of fact. I shrugged my shoulders, pointed to my big bump and stated that I would be right back to take care of her as soon as I could.


Someone who happened to be walking by and had none of that background context might say I wasn’t being “warm and fuzzy” enough in what was clearly a difficult moment for that patient.


Someone with more context would be shocked and tell me I should have had a firm and informative talk with this person who clearly wasn’t treating me like a fellow human being. Then, I should call H.R. and make sure that I got the lunch break and extra help I so clearly needed! (Ha Ha Ha….big eye roll inserted here if you’ve ever worked in healthcare)


But too many situations just as ridiculous had already happened to me in the 2 short years I had been a pharmacist. I had already been threatened, cursed at, and called every name under the sun multiple times over. I had already mentally disassociated from hurtful comments in order to maintain some little bit of mental health. I had nothing “emotionally” left to give that woman…positive OR negative. I didn’t realize until later how absolutely insane that was.


Because, if you know me, you know that I absolutely LOVE getting to completely solve a problem for a patient or find the answer to a difficult question. There’s really nothing quite like the feeling of putting all your hard work and training into action in order to make a difference in someone’s life. But there is just no room for that in the way that so much of healthcare is run today.


Unfortunately, if you’re the sort of person who truly wants to help people, you would generally prefer to not deal with the business aspect of things (read: $$$$). You just want to be able to finally put into practice all of the things you spent years (or decades) of your life learning how to do…”making a difference!” Lining up contracts with insurance companies and figuring out how to advertise yourself are probably not your thing. You just want to help.


So, over time, much of that has been handed over to the people who do like the business aspect (read: $$$$). Today, hospitals and big chain pharmacies are run by CEO’s and business tycoons, not physicians and pharmacists. And people don’t directly pay for their care, insurance companies do. As a result, payment to the people actually taking caring of you is reduced to whats left over after the layers upon layers of administrators now involved in the healthcare process have been paid (and let's not forget the investors). Reimbursement for services is tied to customer service reviews and “production"of whatever quantity someone at the corporate office (read: someone who hasn't actually touched a patient in many years or AT ALL ) has decided is now the standard for keeping your job. We used to joke that the formula used to determine how many hours of help we were allowed to schedule in the pharmacy was “BARE MINIMUM minus ONE PERSON.”


Laugh to keep from crying, right?


The problem is, people aren’t “product” and when I’m filling your prescription, it’s multiple levels of complexity beyond making a pizza or getting your frozen yogurt order correct (I would know. I’ve done all of the above!).


When I was working at that big box store right out of pharmacy school I had bills to pay and big loans to pay back. It seemed like my best option at the moment. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of being more deliberate about choosing work situations that make patient safety a priority, even if it means I make less. There are people who don’t feel like they have that choice, but I can tell you there is no amount of money that can soothe that kind of burn out.


I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want to have to disassociate from every human emotion so that I can just keep going for “the greater good.” And I also don’t want you to get burned in the process.


That’s why I started this service. Because as much as I love to dream of a better scenario, where humans on both sides of the healthcare equation are getting what they need, I can’t immediately overhaul the whole thing on my own. In the meantime, I can help.


No, insurance doesn’t pay for my services and starting a company requires that I put myself out there more than I ever thought possible (advertising my skill set?! Eek! NOT really my thing ). But sometimes you have to do things differently to get them done well.


This walk-out may be inconvenient for you. I am so so sorry. Honestly. The pharmacists who are protesting are not doing this lightly. They are probably wringing their hands over patients they know will be overlooked and already thinking about the mess they will have to walk back into when this (hopefully) gets resolved. In the meantime, read some of the stories at #OperationSpotlight if you can. Many of these speak to my story as well. You may be shocked.


And you may realize that as consumers we have to start requesting quality and safety over profit, speed, and sometimes even over convenience (yes, OUR OWN convenience) when it comes to our healthcare. The way we are headed, we may not have many healthcare workers left.



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Krista@atlasadvocates.com














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