Being a young surgeon, what I have seen and experienced first hand is whenever I try to pitch an innovative idea to my colleagues and senior doctors, just as a regular conversation, they become very defensive about ‘art of medicine’. I can not make them see the decreasing burden on their work and what technology has to offer.
They are more focused on their knowledge and service being very unique and can only be dispensed at certain locality (hospital) and at certain time (their working hours). Yes, many difficult patient problems require these settings. But there are many conditions (I will not mention which) in a general population, which definitely do not require patient’s absolute presence in hospital.
Now, it’s possible and feasible to develop a dramatic efficient model on many aspects of hospital workflow. Even the hospital admin side is slow to adapt because of tightly restricted government regulations. We also have to consider adaptability of care givers as well. I think doctors are trained for many many years to focus on doctor-patient relationship. And naturally for them the relationship should be inside the hospital.
I think it’s about time we should implement the idea of detachment of patients from hospital.