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More than what the doctor ordered

Monitoring patients to see if they follow the doctor's advice: This is one service that Mark Masselli's Community Health Center provides in the US. PRIYADARSSHINI SHARMA finds out more from him about medical care dressed in Tender Loving Care

HEALTH AND HAPPINESS Mark Masselli , CEO of Community Health Center , Connecticut, with wife Jennifer Alexander and their four children

The doctor has asked you categorically to lose 10 kilos, ignored your sweet tooth completely, cut your happy hours drastically, struck off the night cap and prescribed the 45 minutes of without-fail exercise, the boring, tiring work-out, spinach juice and fat free meals. Gosh, you are unhappy with this deal and wish it away. Well, wishing it away or rather allowing you to swallow this bitter pill `your way' is what Community Health Center, Connecticut does or rather Mark Masselli, CEO of this Health Center provides for his clients. It's a mid-way service that we in India are not yet familiar with.

Health care packaged differently or simple solutions to health problems are what Mr. Masselli and his organisation provide back in Connecticut, USA, a service that helps people in a country where medical costs are prohibitive, the insurance sector is all pervasive and the appointment with a doctor, a tedious affair.

On a three-month long vacation cum study of health care systems in India, he and his wife Jennifer Alexander and their four children were in the city recently.

Their 10 Community Health Centers (CHC) are basically community centres with accent on healthcare. Said this very sensitive entrepreneur, "It is very important to know what happens in Harvard MBA school; just as important it is to hold a hand of a mom with five children with no money and listen to what she has to say about what a healthcare centre should do."

And his organisation does precisely that: providing initial healthcare or primary care that one needs before or outside the hospital, a very essential and integral part of the healing process.

Impressed with the quality of healthcare being imparted at the many hospitals that he visited in India he believes there's much on offer from both sides.

Health to him is not of an individual but of the entire community and the neighbourhood and so his medical offices provide services that are strictly medical as well as social. They lend an ear, a helping hand, and support for almost any kind of health-related problem. So much so that these centres have grown to even accommodate a dance hall and a herb garden! They have specific roles in healing the body and soul.

From the notoriously difficult task of getting an appointment with a doctor quickly to having a continuous relationship with a medical officer, Mr. Masselli has, after studying patterns and reports, put "the best practices" from all over to help the sick and suffering.

"We have support groups for, say a mom with twins, for dysfunctional families, for the depressed, domestic violence services, battered women's shelter and chronic disease management." And the five chronic illnesses are his centre's latest focus. "Cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, asthma, cancer and obesity are global problems. These are diseases that need management over a long period.

So we encourage self-management by the patient. The patient is made responsible to even take his blood pressure, do a few blood tests and monitor his diet.

With involvement from the patient's end the disease is treated better. The other transformation that we have brought about is that of continuous intervention. Patients are monitored from time to time by nursing staff or a physician or by a mid level practitioner.

There is continuous communication with them either at their work or home. This keeps them in touch with their disease and prevents then from getting lax about it."

These are indeed very simple solutions to serious problems! If health care is also about communication, as Mr. Masselli believes it is, then it is also about communicating in the right language. "You will be surprised that in America there are people who cannot speak English. We have 50 languages in America because people who don't speak English are invisible. There are Poles, Russians, Spaniards each speaking their own tongue. What we provide is a language line in which they can communicate with a doctor in their tongue."

For an organisation that provides health care packaged in love and compassion the CHC works through a huge network of doctors, social workers, psychologists, health workers and nursing staff.

From its inception 35 years ago it has grown to a conglomerate that provides a service, which they believe, is a right and not a privilege, from doling out medical care along with TLC (Tender Loving Care) the CHC model may be a wonderful example to emulate in a developing society like ours.

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