Having had an unplanned stay in hospital (I wouldn’t recommend pneumonia), I’ve been reflecting on the experience. Maybe I’m a bit strange but I can’t help but look at it through a consultancy lense; maybe interesting, maybe sad.
The paramedics were a bit like a sales team, always there when you call and full of reassuring words. Beneath the relationship management, there’s a real focus on qualifying out (you’re OK, you don’t need our help) or quickly getting you to hospital. The wards, with their skilled doctors and nurses, were like development teams, varied and core to delivery. From the intensity of acute care to the relatively sedate pace of a regular ward, patients perceive that it all happens in the wards. Finally, the consultants were like architects, focused on understanding the patient and determining what programme of treatment they really need. Their skill is getting behind the symptoms, understanding the underlying challenges and defining a course of treatment that will really work to bring about improvement.
After being deposited in casualty, consultants were the first medics that I saw. Initially, they directed the team on which examinations to conduct in order to figure out what was wrong with me and what interventions would best tackle my problems. Once things had calmed down, they spent more time talking to me, understanding how the treatments impacted and keeping me informed on what would happen.
During my time on the wards, the consultants were still overseeing my care. They would pop back, keeping me updated and making necessary adjustments to the plan.
The big surprise for me has been since leaving hospital. I’ve been handed over to a new consultant but she has full access to my details as well as the treatments established. There are tests planned to ensure that the treatment has worked but much of my time with the consultant has been focused on explaining what’s happened, reviewing progress to date and advising me on how best to assure short and long term recovery. The advice has been really useful; I know where I need to play it safe and where I should push to accelerate progress. Though the planned tests will be an objective assessment of success, I feel that I know what they’ll show because the consultant has alerted me to the signs and I’m alive to how I can manage things to get the outcomes that I want.
I wanted to thank about a hundred people for my care but the consultants stand out as shaping my treatment and really helping me to drive my recovery.
Now, back to architecture.