Trust Issues

    One of the first things we learn in patient counseling is instilling trust with your patient during an interaction. Building trust has many benefits in a one-on-one interaction: your patient will be more comfortable sharing useful information, following the advice you provide, and returning in the future with other issues. However, population trust can be harder to establish. How do we reach patients who never trust us in the first place, and therefore never seek our help? This is where the public image of healthcare as a whole matters.

    A major issue in American healthcare that our class discussion has circled is the financial burden. Financial stress is damaging both internally and externally of healthcare systems, precipitating various outcomes that harm population confidence in healthcare. The capitalistic side of the healthcare industry has been a large strain on public trust. Health systems are large and expensive to run considering all the technology, maintenance, and education of staff. Being able to fund these operations is a difficult task. An internal result of financial strain on healthcare systems is the overworking of staff, which contributes to impairing public trust. Overworked providers are less likely to have meaningful interactions with their patients, may overlook issues, and are more susceptible to errors. Emotional stress is also not beneficial to healthcare team dynamics, resulting in an overall decrease in the quality of care provided.

    There are of course consequences to mistakes made in patient care. Hospitals may lose funding or face legal repercussions. It's important to also consider the impact left on patients as a result of these situations. Regardless of the outcome or quality of care that a patient receives, they are still left with a bill to pay. Patients are too often forced to ask themselves if the care is worth the price. Impressions towards the healthcare system have been negatively impacted by the associated financial intimidation, which is only augmented by a lack of health care education.

    This lack of trust by a large part of the population has been observed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. While many have shown their gratitude to the healthcare workers battling COVID-19, there is still a significant amount of the population that still remains sceptical about the existence of the virus. Our ability to unify as a country has been hindered by a polarization of beliefs, which prevents proper following of guidelines that would minimize the spread. Mistrust of our healthcare system is one of the harsh realities that has been revealed by COVID-19, and one that we should work towards improving if we want to get past this pandemic and have better outcomes in the future.