Within the past month, the Occupy Wall Street movement has moved to other political regimes. A new website, "OccupyHealthcare.net: Working together for change," has been drawing Americans' attention to the current healthcare system in this country, and how together we can address common concerns.
#OccupyHealthcare declares that the message has always been about movement. The followers strive to create a system that works for addressing all the health needs of the community. The blog includes stories, questions and ideas surrounding the problems of the healthcare system in this country.
One post from @miller7, Dr. Miller, mentions that innovation has many drivers. In healthcare for example, one can look at mobile health and the way it's delivered. "Sometimes we need to not only transform the way we deliver healthcare, but we also need to transform our thinking about the limitations and confines of our current system," Dr. Miller said. "When we do, there is an opportunity for disruption and innovation in healthcare."
Phil Lawson commented on the blog post, and explained that thinking about transforming healthcare is vital, as the current mindset about healthcare is limiting. "Thinking is relatively easy. The bigger question is implementation," he said. "How long has there been discussion about integrative healthcare? How much real, meaningful, transformative progress has been made in large scale implementation?"
Both valid questions.
@DocForeman, Dr. April C. Foreman, is a licensed psychologist from Kansas, writing her own blog post on the website, comparing the healthcare system to her old broken down car, Betsy. Betsy was an inexpensive, satisfying car, yet unreliable. This caused April to take it into the shop too often, taking money out of her pocket even more often.
"It was a system originally designed for a different time and a different world. Minor inconveniences have escalated into significant breakdowns. The costs of keeping our old system are rapidly out-sizing the costs of innovating a new one."
Dr. Foreman goes on by saying that she would feel at ease if she had some type of consistency in healthcare.
Twitter user @vivimbmd agrees, and offers her piece of advice. "[We need] more physician leaders who care about their communities, civic engagement and the common good."
The #OccupyHealthcare movement has reach over 50,000 people on Twitter. The organization believes that sharing your voice collectively through social media, we can influence the way the structure works.
Most of the users are describing why they feel we need to be occupying healthcare.
"Because women's reproductive rights are being challenged on a federal and state level," tweeted @yayayarndiva.
"To provide patients easy access to their health data," tweeted @AndrewJCohen.
"When people have relationships with physicians they take better care of their health. They ask questions and become patients," added @PracticalWisdom.
Healthcare consultant Joel High focused his piece for the Occupy Healthcare site on why patient-centered care is essential to this conversion. High writes that he has first hand experiences dealing with employees in nursing and medicine, who feel that this profession they have entered and the meaningful work they've wanted to achieved is not possible now.
The answer for them has been focusing on the individual. "Patient-centered care is improving the patient experience," he wrote. "Patients feel more supported and more involved in their own care. This is turn leads to improved outcomes, reduced lengths of stay and reduced costs."
He goes on to say that these organizations that practice patient-centered care represent this transformation that is possible in the US. Looking at the glass as half-full, High believes there are still remarkable people working in the system, who through their energy and passion will help us change the status of healthcare.
Those hopes are the reason why Joel occupies healthcare.
Are you following #OccupyHealthcare on Twitter? Share your thoughts on the subject matter with us @HITNewsTweet.
