Hey Here's A (Great) Idea

I come up with all sorts of ideas. Some are ways to fix things. Some are ways to start things. Some are just invention ideas. Most of them are decent ideas. Perhaps not great, sometimes not necessary, and almost always they are never actually going to happen.

But this idea... this is a good one. Maybe even a great one. It's necessary, and it should happen.

Say you get a call one day from your doctor, and he tells you that you have cancer. BOOM!
That's what that feels like. Your whole world explodes inside your head in one tiny second.
You have a million questions but you can't ask any of them because you are mentally paralyzed and feel like you might throw up in between your heaving sobs. Before you know it you've hung up the phone. The conversation that just changed your whole perspective has ended and you are left, head in your hands, heart thumping wildly, legs too weak to get up, eyes red, cheeks wet, mind dazed and confused.

Here's where my idea comes in.

The next thing that should happen is that your phone rings again, and it should be someone from your medical plan, a designated representative assigned to you, calling to talk to you, to answer your questions regarding your diagnosis--all the ones that you now have but you can't reach your doctor because doctors don't have direct lines anymore and there's no way you're getting through the medical assistant to speak directly with that doctor that just gave you your diagnosis because for your to actually speak directly to your doctor you need a phone appointment and those are now being scheduled two weeks out because doctors are, you know, busy.

No one should ever receive a scary diagnosis and then be left with no one to answer questions or no one to talk to. That second phone call could make all the difference in the world.

Two phone calls means you now know what's going to happen next.
Two phone calls means you now have the phone numbers you need to call in the next few days.
Two phone calls means you now know a general timeline of what's ahead.
Two phone calls means you now know that two days is a good turnaround time for radiology to return your call and you won't need to spend hours on the phone trying to talk to them sooner.
Two phone calls means you now know which doctor is in charge of you.
Two phone calls means you're less likely to start googling anything.
Two phone calls means you now know there's someone to call if you need help.
Two phone calls might make the difference in being able to get to sleep that night.

No matter how great your health plan is, doctors are not readily available to talk exactly when you think you might go crazy out of fear and lack of information. Email is great, but again not when you're insanely scared and need an immediate response.

You need a voice to speak with, and ideally you need a body, someone to speak to in person so you can slow down and think and listen and respond in real time. You need someone who knows your case, who knows the system and can help you navigate it. You need a personal advocate.

That's my (great) idea. Please feel free to run with it, Kaiser.