The Importance of Flexibility

I was recently thinking about what I’ve learned while interning at Crossroads, and one thing that stood out to me is the amount of change that’s taken place over the past year. Everyone knows about healthcare reform, technology and patient-centered care, but I think it is something different to see change and growth unfold in practice.

One of the first projects I became involved with was to help our patients sign up for electronic access to their medical records, so that they could review their charts and schedule appointments electronically, rather than by phone or in-person. At first, this project seemed simple (although a lot of work), but turned out to be more complicated than just handing out forms and explaining the benefits of the program. Some patients did not have reliable internet access, some were disinterested and others were confused. There were follow-ups to keep track of, uncertainty whether the project could be finished by the deadline and – especially for our pediatric patients – uncertainty about who should have access to the charts, if the parents were no longer together, for example.

What I learned from this project is that the way a healthcare organization operates has to work with the circumstances of the people it serves, because each affects what patient-centered care means in an actual sense. Crossroads serves such a varied and diverse population that it’s not practical to have a single way of doing things. What seems easy to one person might not be for another.  So, while technology continues to influence the overall healthcare landscape, it’s good to remain flexible and see how technology is a means to an end, but not the end in and of itself. Crossroads has a variety of ways to communicate with our patients- whether by phone, email or face-to-face. With the tremendous growth that we have experienced during the past year, retaining this flexibility is a real benefit to our patients and was interesting to see in practice.

--Frank Womble