Opinion: Health care’s shift from covenant to commodity comes with consequences
Norman Rockwell’s 1939 painting “When the Doctor Treats Your Child” depicts a family doctor with a stethoscope around his neck scribbling a prescription in front of three children, one sitting on his mother’s lap. The painting evokes the health care covenant: one doctor responsible for the family as well as for the community, whose professional ethics required unfaltering dedication to their patient’s well-being.
Health care delivery today bears little resemblance to that iconic painting. It has moved from a primary care model to team-based approaches in which care is delivered through a mosaic of handoffs that include primary care doctors, allied health professionals, covering doctors, and specialists. Most primary care clinicians have little time to spend with their patients and families, and so often miss clinically important insights and psychological and social factors that can be woven into the care they recommend. Nor are there enough hours in the day to deliver all the recommended care.
