Their is no “team” when you have no insurance because there is not cohesion through the drs since you have to go to all sorts of different places to get your care (which ever place is free or low cost). You have to scrabble around and figure it out yourself.
My “team” is Me, Myself and I.
To have a 'team" I would think the best place to go for all your care would be a medical center/outpatient of a big hospital where all your medical records go into one chart (or computer file now) so this way the same chart goes to all the department and your stuff is right in there.
Ha! The doctor that diagnosed me - I swear he thought I was a pain in the ■■■ because I honestly knew more about nutrition than he did. I was nice about it though. The one I have now, I have only seen him once and he hardly let me talk at all - he kept interupting me. The doctors don’t like it when you might be smarter than them! All he did was talk and I had to pay 95 bucks for 15 mintues. Needless to say, I try not to go to him if I don’t have too.
Upon a visit to my Diabetes Education Center ,I have blood work done, copies to my GP ; I may not see the Diabetes Specialist at this visit , however my file will go to her office for review , just across the hallway from the D.E.Center. At the DEC I am always asked , if I had my yearly meeting with the Eye Specialist . I know, that in the past Eye Doc( who I see once yearly, winter ) would sent a report of my latest visit and update to GP and Optometrist,( who I see once yearly, summer ) . I look at them as my Team with me being the most important person in this game . I like to include my Pharmacist , who I see most often !..Pharmacies are not, as far as I know online with the rest of the team… .maybe one day .
Quoted from the Canadian Diabetes ■■■’n’s website " Diabetes management and treatment also must recognize the person with diabetes as a pivotal member of the health-care team, more so than other diseases. This can be a challenge for a health-care professional with minimal diabetes-specific training, one which could be addressed through better and ongoing training and education.
Diabetes is one of the most complex diseases to manage and treat. It is not one disease; there are different types requiring varied management strategies. Also, diabetes can affect an individual person differently at different times. It can lead to a wide range of complications requiring specialized treatment. Many health-care professionals often receive a “bare minimum” of diabetes training in their curriculum, possibly due to this very complexity" .
I think Abbey has hit on the situation that usually is required to have a team approach: being co-located. I worked in Behavioral Health for awhile and occasionally our clients would have “run-ins” with Probation, Child Protective Services, Public Guardians and even their PCPs who didn’t understand their mental health situations. I would occasionally make a call to these people who were polite but seemed to wonder why I was calling and were probably frantically paging through records to find out who I was talking about.
On the other hand I have worked as a team in the same facility with all of these people, meeting on a regular basis to discuss our mutual clients and coordinating our efforts on the client’s behalf. This worked!
And no, I don’t have anything like this for my diabetes, but then I haven’t sought it out. My current PCP referred me to a GI for a problem and never asked about the results. When I presented him with an updated list of meds and had that GI’s name next to it, he commented, “Oh, Dr. Roark is prescribing this?” I pretty just use my doctor to write scripts and lab slips but if I felt the need for a team I would look for one where they worked together in the same practice or the same hospital.
Hi Gerri - I carry my D records with me and give everybody a copy when I see them, and ask for an updated copy the day of the visit. My educator, cardiologist, endo, gp, eye and podiatrist are on my team. This idea ocurred to me when I needed to travel with my husband 6 years ago, after he’d had a heart attack. The doc’s all appreciate the copies and no one says - “No thanks, I don’t want a copy.” I am proactive in keeping track of all our records as I am the Captain of the team…
If there is an emergency, there are many records out there for my team to view. I hope this helps.
D
I happy to report that I do now have a quite coherent team where I live (in Hungary). On a visit to my “diabetologist”, I see a nurse/diabetes educator to discuss any changes or problems that I might be having and she prepares the lab work and everything else to pass off to the endo. While I wait for the endo, the dietician reviews my food journal (if I kept one, which I am horrible at). The dietician usually has good advice (in my opinion) and checks my carb counts for places where I might have miscounted or guessed when there was a high or low following the meal. Then I see the endo who meticulously reviews my blood sugar logs using a powerful form of pattern management. She can really detect patterns that I didn’t notice and suggests changes.
For my thyroid problems, I saw an endocrinologist (a separate field in Hungary) who provides recommendations for the endo on how to treat, etc. My endo also requests all copies from other doctors (eye doctor, etc.). She knows the other doctors that she refers me too and they clearly know her.
So I actually think that I do have a team where my endo is really the center, but cooperates and appreciates the other doctors. I feel quite fortunate for this!
