Why Should This Seem So Revolutionary?

*The following is a contribution from a new employee in the Patient Services office. Her enthusiasm is infectious! Seeing her go through the process of learning what Qliance is doing, beginning to teach it to others, and then seeing the impact in her own situation is wonderful. She writes with humor about a situation we have all experienced and know well. "...the familiar yet strangely comforting smell of sanitizer mixed with rubber."

-Enjoy!

"The beginning of my job at Qliance Primary Care was a complete whirlwind -a verifiable torrent of terms and explosion of facts. Never did I think that I would become nearly fluent in healthcare plans let alone Medicare; man was I naïve. My two month mark hits less than one week from today and it occurred to me today as I spoke with a potential patient how little I knew going in and how much I know now. I had read the website, devoured the information in preparation for my interviews and even thought about what a company like Qliance might mean for healthcare in general; I thought I got it. But after two months of in depth conversations with real patients about their actual situations, I realize what sort of an impact we can have not only on individual lives, but on the country as a whole. I am drawn to Qliance because despite having dreams of clinics throughout the nation, the underlying goal is to maintain a patient centered focus through small clinics and devoted doctors. Why should this seem so revolutionary? Because it is only now that I realize how rare a thing it is a doctor who works for patients.
I recently had my final doctor’s appointment with my family physician-she was the doctor that delivered me and has seen me throughout every major medical milestone in my life and now she was retiring. As I walked through the familiar mauve door into the Polyclinic, I smiled at the faded sign reading “PLEASE let the front desk know if you have been waiting longer than 20 minutes,” (the same sign that had been there since I was an infant) and breathed in the familiar yet strangely comforting smell of sanitizer mixed with rubber. My senses reeled as if I was unceremoniously thrust back into the womb and at that very moment I realized that the past three times I had visited this office, at none of them had I actually seen my physician. Now, I am a healthy young woman, I don’t smoke nor do I drink in excess, I wear my seatbelt and, despite recent meteorological events, try my damndest to get my daily dose of Vitamin D. I have even been known to complete a triathlon or two. My point is, is that for my once per year visit (and it truly has been only once a year) I expect to see my doctor-is that too much to ask? Yet when I sat on the crinkly exam table, my back goose-bumped from the draft, I finally understood how Qliance is different and why we are, in fact, so great.Now that I am a Qliance patient, I can truly see my doctor whenever I want. Obviously she can’t work 7 days a week, but the times that I don’t see her I know that she will correspond with the treating physician to keep herself apprised of my condition."