Marc Boutin Examines the Underutilization of Patients

The healthcare system in the US makes it nearly impossible for patients and physicians to form a real relationship, and patients are rarely asked about what's going on in their lives, which could inform treatment, said Marc Boutin, JD, chief executive officer of the National Health Council.

Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

In what ways are patients still being underutilized?

Patients are being dramatically underutilized. We're spending very little time now in our system actually asking them about what's going on in their lives. Because the delivery of care is more than simply just providing for their clinical outcomes. It's really assessing what's happening in their lives, what are they capable of doing, what are they willing to do, and then aligning care around that.

We're also spending very little time actually asking the patient what's important to them. In the days of community doctors, they were there when you were born, they were with you for decades, and they knew everything going on in your life. They had a relationship with you. Everything in the system makes it virtually impossible for us to have a relationship with our providers. We don't go in, we don't tell them what's important to us, they don't have the time to ask, and they simply provide care that may or may not be aligned with what's important to us or what we're capable of doing.