Are You a “Patient” or “Consumer”?
A great deal of patience is often required in health care, for all the waiting around that’s involved. But now the idea of being a “consumer” is emerging as a new way to describe the traditional title of “patient”. Musician, comedian, and patient advocate Luke Escombe considers the difference between being a patient vs. a consumer in the healthcare system — and encourages you to rethink your own role.
“Patient” always seemed like a pretty good job description for chronically ill people like me and our role in the health system.
First we wait for an appointment. Then we wait in the waiting room. Then we wait for the doctor to make a treatment decision. Then we wait for the treatment to work. Patience is the essential quality we need for all that waiting around.
As a patient, I’d seen my doctors as authority figures who needed to be obeyed.
Ever since I was a kid, I’d thought about my place in the health system this way. In my mind, doctors were like teachers: you would give them your homework and test results, then they would tell you if you were good or bad. The role of the patient, as I understood it, was to submit to the doctor’s opinion, often with your pants around your ankles.
The idea that you could challenge them or disagree with their decisions never occurred to me. That’s why hearing the term “consumer” for the first time at the Australian National Medicines Symposium a few years ago felt so foreign. It seemed to describe a completely different health system, one in which the patients somehow got to sit in the director’s seat and call the shots. After all, consumers have options. Consumers have power.
And yet “consumer” was how people at this industry event were describing me. I felt like I’d just been given access to secret knowledge. I wondered if someone at reception had accidentally given me the wrong security clearance.
Over the next few days, I started to think about these two words — patient and consumer — and the different roles they imply.
Thinking about my doctors in this way made me suddenly see them in a new light. All at once, I felt grateful to have such brilliant, dedicated people in my corner.
Being a consumer gave me a voice. It made me a part of the conversation about my own health outcomes.
As a patient, I’d seen my doctors as authority figures who needed to be obeyed. Now, as a consumer, I realized that these amazing human beings were not my masters, but my partners. They were the experts I was choosing to hire to help me run the vital business of my health and well-being.
Thinking about my doctors in this way made me suddenly see them in a new light. All at once, I felt grateful to have such brilliant, dedicated people in my corner. I felt inspired to be collaborating with them on such an important project: my health. I realized that we were working together with the shared purpose of making my life better.
I also began to recognize that being a consumer gave me a voice. It made me a part of the conversation about my own health outcomes. As a patient, I’d just been waiting for someone else to do it.
The fact is, you’re a consumer already, whether you know it or not. The question is, will you be a mindless consumer or an enlightened one?
As a consumer, I could talk directly to the companies making my medications and demand improvements. My voice would be heard, and my story would be respected. As a patient, I merely accepted what I was given.
Patients wait. Consumers act. Patients submit. Consumers lead. Patients accept. Consumers demand.
The fact is, you’re a consumer already, whether you know it or not. The question is, will you be a mindless consumer or an enlightened one?
And then I started to think about the type of consumer I had been up until that point. I thought about all the money that I had spent on medical expenses, either out of my own pocket or through insurance.
All the family doctor visits, consultations with surgeons, specialist clinic appointments, blood tests, stool sample analysis kits, iron infusions, surgeries, CT scans, MRIs, x-rays, colonoscopies, and hospital parking fees. Not to mention the daily meds, multivitamins, calcium supplements, antibiotics, pain killers, sleeping tablets, laxatives, enemas, cough syrups, and blister packs.
And then it hit me: my God, I’m not just a consumer, I’m an addict! How could I have spent all this money and still be sick?
That’s when the final shift from a patient to a consumer mentality took place for me: when I realized that with this newfound power came a responsibility to make good choices. Perhaps that’s what scares some of us off, the acceptance of responsibility for our own choices.
But the fact is, you’re a consumer already, whether you know it or not. The question is, will you be a mindless consumer or an enlightened one?
About the Author Based in Australia, Luke Escombe is an award-winning singer-songwriter, comedian, and health advocate. He is the creator of "Chronic", a one-man comedy show about living with IBD, and "The Vegetable Plot", a roots music band for kids, families, and foodies promoting healthy eating. Since the debut of “Chronic” at the 2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Luke’s ability to take his real-life struggles with chronic illness and turn them into laughter, music, and art has earned him keynote speaking engagements at health events worldwide, as well as standing ovations on four continents.
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The posts on this blog are for information only. They are neither intended to substitute for a relationship with your doctor or other healthcare provider, nor do they constitute medical or healthcare advice of any kind. Any information in these posts should not be acted upon without consideration of primary source material and professional input from one’s own healthcare providers.