Getting the right health care for you

King County is teaming with the nonprofit Puget Sound Health Alliance to present Own Your Health, a campaign to empower consumers to become active participants in their own health and health care.

Through Own Your Health, we’ve shared a lot about the benefits of having a strong relationship with a primary care doctor. We’ve also heard from you on that topic through our website and the Own Your Health survey.  Now we’re excited to present our second health topic: Getting the Right Care. That means quality care that is right for you.

You’ll see a new poster, new information on our website, and new Health Matters articles, starting now. Plus we want to hear from you on this topic because it affects all of us, as individuals, as families and as a community.

We strongly believe you deserve quality health care that meets your specific needs. While quality can mean different things to different people, for health care, quality means the right care, at the right time, for the right reason.

• Your health care provider does things the right way. For example, he or she wouldn’t skip measuring your blood pressure or give you a medication that could cause a dangerous interaction.
• You get health services when you need them. For example, you get to see your doctor before you get sicker.
• You get health services for the right reason. You get the services you actually need, nothing more and nothing less.

What that adds up to is you getting the health care that gives you the best possible results.

There’s another layer here, and it’s not fun or comforting to think about. For many complex reasons, the quality of health care varies. You can visit the Community Checkup website to see many ways it varies within Puget Sound.

For example, evidence shows every person with diabetes should have an eye exam at least once every two years. Yet some diabetes patients don’t have health care teams that make sure they get that needed eye exam. Sure it can help if a patient knows what he or she needs and can ask for it. We’re each a key part of our health care team in that way. Still we all count on our health care providers to give quality care.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the quality of care varies because the quality of so many other things in our lives varies. Why else would we look to reviews on Yelp or Amazon or Consumer Reports? Why else would we ask friends to recommend a hair stylist or vacation spot or cell phone?

But we don’t like to think about quality varying in health care because we know health care providers are generally caring, hardworking people. And we don’t want to think that those differences in quality could hurt us. And yet quality does vary widely, from one doctor’s office to another, and even from one doctor’s patient to another.

It’s not enough to have a good doctor or a nice doctor. Or to assume you’re getting the right care. Or even to want to get the right care. You need to make sure you get it.

So what can you do? The good news is by getting informed about your health and health care and by taking a more active role, you can help improve the quality of health care you get.

And when you have a health care provider committed to quality, that provider will not only welcome your involvement but also encourage it. Your provider could direct you to reliable information on a health topic that affects you and talk to you about your options. He or she will value what you bring to that doctor-patient relationship and respect your desire to get quality health care.

But without your involvement, you aren’t getting the most out of that doctor-patient relationship. Your role is key. Your action is key.

Using the Tell Your Story form on the Own Your Health website, King County employee John shared:

“Getting high quality health care is very important to me. I research everything to do with my health. I fortunately have survived some pretty serious events. So I look up information, and constantly ask questions and opinions from more than one source. There is a wealth of information out there. “

John’s right.

You can only get active once you have reliable, trustworthy information you can use. The Own Your Health website is a great place to start. Click here for more on Getting the Right Care, including: “Guide to Health Care Quality”; “10 Things You Need to Know About the Quality of Health Care in America”; and resources with information about specific medical conditions.

Quality information will help you become a key member of your health care team and that will help you get quality care.