Friday, November 20, 2009

There is no billing code for compassion

Our Dr. Amy Ship won the Campassionate Caregiver Award from the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center last night. The center conducts programs to educate, train and support caregivers in the art of compassionate health care. It received over 100 nominations for this award, which is designed to recognize people who have exemplified the practice of compassionate care to patients. Here is a background story from NECN television.

Amy's acceptance speech kept the audience in rapt attention. Here are some excerpts. I am hoping to be able to lead you to a video soon. One peak moment was when she emphasized the importance of primary care and bemoaned the current environment that often results in short, unsatisfactory visits. Noting that "there is no billing code for compassion," she called for a restoration of the proper role for primary care doctors.

4 comments:

  1. No Billing Code for Compassion! Wonderful. I will use that someday. I just hope I remember to attribute it to Amy.

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  2. Thanks Dave! i love the ability to subscribe to comments. Even weeks and months later you can get useful information!

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  3. Because of this blog post, I corresponded with Dr. Ship and went downtown to meet her today. It was inspiring: she is quite a presence (though I'm sure she'd be embarrassed to hear that). This is a remarkable caregiver.

    I blogged about the visit today. And for anyone who hasn't seen the NECN piece about her, which Paul linked to, it's worth the five minutes. Look at the authentic intensity in her eyes as she talks about her own experience as a patient/mother. (There's a 30 second commercial at the start.)

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