Be there or be…healthy

Is it possible that the intense feeling you had when you were a student – the “be in your chair when class starts” mentality – is forcing people to make a choice between being healthy or not? As a recent article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press points out, that might be the case. In this series about “Life in Hard Economic Times,” one of the people profiled is a dentist, who, though business is good for his practice, points out that there have been a lot of cancellations. When people call into cancel, the most common reason cited is that meetings have been called and they feel they should be there – stay at work – and most of all, “they don’t want to be noticed not being present.”

It makes sense. The more paranoid and cautious we are about our jobs and the security of them, the more we might question leaving for any type of appointment. This might be especially true if it’s a preventative health visit, like a twice – yearly dentist appointment. Depending on the profession, some people struggle with it anyways – economic times or not – because they don’t want to dip out of work and notice being missed. Now more than ever though, people weigh the pros and cons of this, and know they can always reschedule when the time’s better, and get to it when they can. But this also begs the question – when is a better time? If this is a common response heard by healthcare professionals, it’s time to start catering. More than ever, it shows how patients could really benefit from things like extended or later evening hours, or weekend hours, to help accommodate.

Ultimately, it seems, people are going to sacrifice being healthy for face time at work. Once we bounce back from this, they’ll be back in the dentist chair at 10AM on Tuesday’s, but until then, and even after – it’s always good to give them options.