Pawn Stars

Respect should be the primary practice in caring for others’ health. Direct communication and timely decision-making are respectful. Obviously, the direct approach provides a forward path for individuals and their health. This approach also provides space for subsequent regulation or laws to shape.??

Direct communication and decision making needn’t be abrasive. While the path of “bs-ing” words and actions is always inappropriate in the healthcare field, a perpendicular path of refined communication is appropriate. Time to refine communication and actions, out of respect and toward clear intent, should be taken. Unfortunately, some misuse this perpendicular path for alternative agenda.?

In other words, the intentional stalling on decisions and actions for people’s healthcare has become an acceptable culture. And it is masked as process, politics, professional methodology or manners. The practice is none of these spins, however. Forgoing the direct decision making, or direct wording, for opportunistic aspirations is manipulative.?If the manipulations of indecisions, stalling or word-stuffing drag on, those awaiting action rightfully feel used or bowed to hierarchy. If allowed, the stalling of communication and inaction on the public’s health creates a game of pawns.?

When sincere, good communicators meet others’ at others’ communication levels, relationships and messaging are earnest. For example, if some use an online headline or matched presence to communicate, we join social media to meet them at their communication level. Yet what happens when skilled ambassadors earmark disrespectful misusers for messaging needs? We risk matching manipulation to further manipulation. And a hierarchy of pawn stars, built from the ground up, still doesn’t address accountability. None of this improves health for the individual member of the public.

Now, because the public is asked to continue everyday busy life, the public does not have the time nor the resource for daily campaigning of this basic decency.?

Instead, we can cement a foundation. We can start a strategic gameplan toward respectful communication and timely moves for the public’s health. And those of us who genuinely care about each and every member of the public can cement this foundation without delay. Let’s focus:

1. Legislative necessity and pathway should be clear. Local, national and cross-country tracks should outline efficient and best paths for health-related regulation and legislation.
2. Decision-making should be measured and publicly reported. Withholding decisions or direct communication on the public’s health is disrespectful. Decisions and communication should also be tracked, supervised and accompanied by consequences. This is especially true of the United States’ federal government. The current portfolio of federal health legislation, disorganized, unclear and backlogged, is disrespectful. The current portfolio of legislation in global health also remains without organization to health, enforcement or consequence clarity. Tracking of specific health-related subjects is helpful. All of this can be improved with metrics.?
3. The public should lead. Just as patient advocacy has been included in leadership at the hospital and community health decision-making level, the public should be included in enforcement and consequence of inappropriate and manipulative indirectness.
4. Consequences should match the gross misconduct. In the United States, the pawning of healthcare in an opportunistic agenda should be met with civil and criminal liability. This is particularly true when stalls and delays create negative health outcomes.?

The message is clear: healthcare is not to be pawned, traded or manipulated.

As we begin to redefine respectful and healthy culture in legislating and communicating health priorities for the public, we can take stock in hope. Even tending to one flower a time, redesigning health legislation and communication accountability can resoil, enrich and blossom our garden portfolio.

Besides, freeing up personal agenda leaves time for legislator leisure. Perhaps even a few hours bowling will brighten a local bloom.

It's an exciting time to be direct and decisive as we prioritize the public's health.