The film called RX: The Quiet Revolution and the ACA methods of patient care have some strong similarities and differences. Let’s look in depth for starters at one example from the documentary. The patient homecare method lets patients stay in their homes while the practitioner comes to them. This was implemented in Maine town and not in a large city or extremely rural setting. In this method, the medical facility enrolls the patient and places all of their medical information online. The medical professional visits the patient in their place of living and offers same day service for care requests.
These features differ from a traditional method of care because the patient stays in the home. Most of the time, the medical world requires patients to come into the clinic and receive care on site. Since the ACA implementation, however, some home care methods have been put into place. These often look like regular visits for people who can care for themselves or a live in nurse that stays with the patient for a number of days each week.
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"RX: The Quiet Revolution".
The differences then extend into the relationships that a patient will have with the nurse or medical practitioner. In the home based system advocated in the documentary, a patient will get to know the person who visits them and feel more comfortable in their own place, presumably. This might facilitate a greater trust in the medical professional and therefore the medical world as a whole. A lack of trust among the population towards the medical world is a problem that needs remedying. The RX method might help to resolve this.
By contrast, the traditional medical practice of having patients enter the clinic has its own stregnths. In the first place, the clinic offers a more formal setting that enables doctors to be more efficient. They can see many patients within a day, whereas a trip to different homes will require more time. In the second place, the medical clinic has more equipment and other staff that might help a patient with their problem. The home based system only works for patients of certain illnesses, those that do not require the medical infrastructure of a full clinic. In the third place, the negative side of the clinic model is that some patients get nervous or do not trust the medical professionals. The whole setting feels a bit stiff, formal or unfamiliar to the patient who then might respond negatively.
Finally, consider the goals of traditional care and ACA implementation with the RX model of patient focused care. The RX documentary claims that its method will generate a focus away from the diagnostics and procedures and turn this towards the patients themselves. The home based care considers the person first and does not focus on the hierarchy and formalities of a traditional medical context. There is much to appreciate about this, like the strengths noted above and the true motivations of care for patients. However, the system has its weaknesses.
The RX method assumes a problem with diagnostics and procedures. Indeed, these methods do cause problems and are not perfect. However, the diagnostics and procedures often serve positive elements of health. The goals of traditional care and ACA implementation include the health of the patient. Making money or following guidelines are not the primary objectives of their methods. The procedures and diagnostics do not aim to replace the importance of the patient, but offer a solid and reliable way to facilitate the health of the patients. The video demonstrates that such a response against the procedure based practice might arise from a suspicion or from experiences that do not reflect the nature of the larger medical world.
