The Point of Contact
"Who is the rest of the world who has long been using ICD-10? Is it possible to get a real answer, or is this just a vague statement being made to intimidate American healthcare?" That was my question to a blog that mentioned the HHS announcement of their intent to delay ICD-10 compliance date, that the rest of the world has long been using. I understand the WHO issued this in 1999 and it is being incorporated into countries, Canada for example.
My question is to what result? What healthcare breakthroughs are coming out of these countries that is bettering the health of their communities and spreading into the world? ... compared to America. At the point of contact with the patient, how is diagnosis, treatment and healing being impacted? Not afterwards, when you are documenting what you did to get reimbursed, or creating a body of information for the statistical analysis of the health of your community and state. Accumulating data is useful, but data can be manipulated in so many ways.
According to data, Egypt at one time had the highest employment in the history of the world. When they were building the pyramids! But what was the nature of that employment? At the point of contact, the laborer doing the work, what was the reality of the world he experienced?
Religion has filled the world with data in books, doctrines, music, institutions, but at the point of contact with the individual, what is happening? Compared to... a day in the ministry of Jesus and the connections he made.
Rural healthcare is closer to the most meaningful point of contact with their community that exists. The question is how to harness all of the higher qualities and breakthroughs and technology of healthcare and bring them into focus in that unique environment of the point of contact between the clinician and the patient. This process is external, it is bringing that which is out there in the world to bear upon this situation before you.
Equally important is the internal process. How do you harness all that you are, your wisdom, your knowledge, your understanding and experience and draw down deeper to press and penetrate through the darkness to accurately diagnosis, treat and care for the patient, at the point of contact?
I face these same challenges in the design world. Do I just hear a few words from you, then run back to the office to do my thing, and come back in two weeks and say, "Behold! Here is your answer!" Only if I want to get beat up! My continual challenge, is how do I maximize my point of contact with the client, the physician and the staff to connect with their vision and needs and to create the environment that they draw from to do what they do.
This is the twofold challenge of rural healthcare in taking on the mountain: harnessing the wind, the rains and the elements of the world around you and developing your root structure to bring forth the best fruit you can to yield to your community. The first is creating your personal environment that you draw from, whether it is an exam room or operating room, an office or a kitchen, you are harnessing all of the power of the infrastructure of your facility and beyond to come thru those walls and be available at your fingertips to use as needed, when needed. The second is, as iron sharpens iron, to have your network of people to be able to discuss things with and come to an understanding upon which you can make confident decisions so all of the resources of your staff and facility and community are flowing together achieving lasting results.
The point of contact.
How do you see it? How do you develop it? How do you increase the flow of the substance through that point of contact to meet the needs? The two fingers reaching out to touch each other in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, is that happening in all you do? This is where the light needs to shine, through the leadership of the organization, in the midst of everything else you are doing. Data is good, and it helps with research which sheds light on issues and leads to breakthroughs. Government regulations mean well, but generally force us to build pyramids. The point of contact is what heals.
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