We’ve all seen the growing and frightening statistics regarding diabetes here in America. No matter what age, race, gender, or orientation we are, diabetes is affecting all of us in form or another. For what seems like the millionth time in my life I have to face a new doctor and describe ad nauseum my history, my symptoms, and my FEARS. Yet IMHO (in my humble opinion in net speak) we also face a challenge of having to find quality healthcare, particularly here in the area I reside.
Having come from Boston, I received what was quality care amongst the major teaching and research hospitals (Beth Israel Deaconess and Joslin Clinic - which now have partnered together) to trying to understand my disease and how to control it. However it seems here I have to struggle to find an endocrinologist who will work with me, a urologist who will understand the complications, and a general practitioner who’ll take what brief time he/she has during the day to listen to me.
A good book out there that’ll make you understand how doctors react to their daily job is by Jerome Groopman, MD called How Doctors Think. It is a fascinating read.
My personal take is there is difficulty in finding the same quality of care I saw on the East Coast here in the West Coast without having to travel nearly 1/2 a day (well maybe less from Napa Valley) to Irvine to get into the Joslin Clinic Program there at UC Irvine, or closer to maybe Stanford.
I’d like to know everyone’s take on just the simple question of if they are satisfied with the quality of their diabetes care. Please take a moment to go to a survey page I’ve created at Survey Monkey. I’ll post an update soon on my progress.