... and a nod to national weather-women, too....
I heard about this recognition on my news / weather forecast this evening. It immediately triggered those "hey! there's another metaphor" brain cells of mine....
If you lived where I live (Central New York State -- near Syracuse -- just east of the Finger Lake Region) then you would know what a thankless job weather forecasters have. We have only two seasons each year (winter and the 4th of July) and even then, we have lake effect, lake effect, lake effect -- precipitation in the form of snow or rain or clouds or rain or snow. Did I mention lake effect? Yes -- Lake Ontario provides plenty of liquid or crystals to fall from our skies. It's rare, even in summer, that we experience drought.
When weather fronts come through, or when they crash together, or when they just skip over us, or even get stuck overhead (they have trouble getting past the Adirondack Mountains) -- it's a wonder any of our weather forecasters have one strand of hair left on their heads.
Yet -- no one ever expects them to improve their accuracy. They keep coming up with better technology. They have more accurate radar (triple doppler no less!) and more accurate computers, but few days go by that their accuracy ever seems improved over what it was before.
So how is predicting the weather in Central NY akin to navigating our medical care?
First, because we just listen to the weather guys and girls and accept what they have to say -- which is what most of us do with our doctors. We don't question them. We just believe (most of) what they tell us. We never question whether they came to the right conclusions until it's obvious they did or they didn't.
Forecasters use big technology that kinda wows us.... intimidates us, perhaps? We think it's some kind of alchemy that helps them arrive at their answers. More and more our doctors are using big technology, too.
Listening to the weather forecast is similar to being given a diagnosis. We rarely question it, or ask about alternatives, until we are faced with the fact that they are wrong.
Next, we keep expecting them to get better at what they do -- but we don't take any responsibility for making sure they are more accurate. When was the last time you called your local weather forecaster and volunteered to participate? To observe, or comply or whatever it took to make sure the forecasting improved?
I realize that sounds silly -- but too many of us approach our healthcare the same way. We complain about the problems, but we don't do anything to improve it ourselves. We expect our doctors to fix things for us without taking the responsibility for participation ourselves.
I could wax further -- but the point is -- we actually have more control over our healthcare than we do over both the weather AND how accurately forecasters predict it. Think about that point -- and maybe by National Weatherman's Day next year? Maybe the metaphor will no longer apply for you.
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Photo ©William Thomas Cain/Getty Images
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