Get me a doctor – now!

By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H.

As the nation enters into the political fray of presidential campaigns, the issue of health care comes to the fore. Access to health insurance and access to care are inextricably linked in the U.S. health care system, and many candidates are seeking to address that issue.

How or whether they do will play out, as it often does, in the interplay among interest groups and the public's demand. However, many in the health care arena, while wrestling with that issue, are also looking carefully at others. One of the most critical is how to get patient and doctor together at the appropriate time.

I faced that issue in a very personal way recently, when my father, after wrestling several nights with a health issue that left him fatigued and sleepless, called me in desperation. "Get me a doctor," he said.

I had, on many previous occasions, gotten him a doctor when he needed one. However, he had never seemed as desperate as he was now. "You mean now?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "Get me a doctor – now!"

He was tired, he was exasperated at being unable to sleep, he was irascible. He needed a doctor and he needed one then. And I had no clue about how to match him up with a physician immediately.

Calling one of the many specialists he sees means traversing through a mind-numbing set of phone options. If you want this, push 2. If you want that, push 3. If you are really sick, hang up and call 911.

I called my Dad back. Did he want to go to the emergency room? If we went, that meant one thing for sure. None of us would get any sleep as we waited our turn among people with chest pain, difficulty breathing and a variety of injuries.

He laughed. No, he did not want to go to the emergency room. He wanted to see a doctor.

Luckily, he has access to a physician through his living arrangement. While he didn't see the doctor, the physician there could phone in a prescription that made it possible for him to sleep. He saw Dad the next day during regular hours.

Through its plan for personalized medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, in the Baylor Hospital and Clinic, hope to alleviate these kinds of problems. The plan is to deliver the medicine you need when you need it. Doing this will mean changing a medical culture, and it will not be easy.

It will not be as exciting as genomic medicine, but to the thousands, if not millions, of people who at some point in their lives need to see a doctor immediately, it will spell relief and comfort. It will be the kind of medical advance we can all understand and appreciate.