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pod. Test. This is chanel Bun with Becker
Healthcare care podcast, and I'm recording live at
the Becker Healthcare care 20 first Samuel Spine
orthopedic paid management driven As
Plus the future of Spine Conference. And right
now, I'm... Sitting with Doctor Kim Han Henson,
the associate professor, of an,
pain an addiction at the university of Nebraska
Medical Center,
Doctor Han Henson. Thank you so much for
joining me today. Of Well, thank you. I
appreciate your time today. Well, to get us
started, Could you please tell us a little
bit about yourself or your background an organization?
I'd love to.
So I originally started my career out as
an accountant,
and I did that for approximately 8 years
and decided I had too many nights and
weekends off. So I then went back to
school and went to medical school, I did
my training at Loma Lending University in Southern
California.
And then I came to Nebraska for residency.
I completed a residency in,
and then went on to a pain medicine
fellowship,
And then during Covid, I was able to
study and take the test for addiction medicine,
so I grandfather into the
Medicine,
specialty as well, which I think has been
very helpful in the pain realm because there's
so many patients who really need appropriate addiction
care
Got it. And to get us into the
meat of the podcast a bit, health care
costs are rising
significantly,
especially since the pandemic,
how has that impacted your work?
I think it impacts it daily actually, in
many different ways. I mean, we've had to
switch... The equipment we use because of increasing
costs of that. So I feel like sometimes
the kits I use now are not quite
the quality as what they use to be
in the past. But more importantly, I think
it is affected patient access to care even
more. So there are certain procedures ends to
certain
medications I cannot offer certain patients because of
the lack of reimbursement by their
insurance companies, certain And to me, that's the
most heartbreaking, especially if I know I have
a really good therapy to help a patient
and yet, I'm completely unable to access them.
Absolutely. And based on your experience, how has
the patient provider dynamic changed over time?
They feel that a lot of patients have
taken the time to
look up online some of the things that
are affecting them and some of the medications
that have been recommended to them in the
past So I feel in general, a lot
of patients are more well informed coming into
clinic.
And so I feel that that gives us
a more dynamic
conversation about... What would be appropriate
and what, you know, even though they may
have read about a medication based on their
other health comorbidities
may or may not be a good idea
for them.
So I've enjoyed
being able to take the conversations up to
a new level
based on the fact that patients come in
pretty well informed already.
Absolutely. I'm kind of tacking onto to that
with patients being more informed, especially in more
recent years with social media and whatnot. People
are taking their health into their own hands
and
not seeking out professional opinions as much. Why
do you think that is?
I think some people over rely on the
Internet,
or they're just so desperate for pain relief.
They just decide to, you know, maybe take
too much Tylenol owens out of what's actually
recommended on the bottle.
So I think it's a combination of both
things. I think a lot of people in
their desk operation will do things that are
risky, and maybe not even realize it's a
risky decision.
But also if they read something on the
Internet, they've
decided they have whatever diagnosis
and
then go ahead and pursue the treatment for
that, which may not actually be accurate,
I think patients are also seeking a lot
more
of, you know, agriculture, massage, things of those
nature. I think are appropriate and and probably
beneficial for them to have tried prior to
me seeing them?
Absolutely. And from an organizational standpoint, do you
have any strategies in place aimed at helping
bring in patients or to help improve retention?
Yes. We we do some advertising I'll will
admit our advertising budget has been drastically decreased
since Covid funding has dried up. But for
the most part, we do a lot of
surveys. We do a lot of asking. Patients
how we can do a better job in
hopes that we can create a better environment
for them either in quicker or check times.
Our or a more appropriate
advice or whatever they're wanting from the surveys.
We take very close look at those
at it. And you've kind of I've walked
us through how to improve retention, But can
you tell us why retention is so important?
Well, many pain patients that see me initially
don't have a lot of trust in the
medical system. They've been bounced from physician to
physician with, you know, little or no options
for their pain.
And I think it takes a few visits
to create trust, within that relationship. So I
feel I'm better able to help patients. If
I've seen them multiple times, and we've kind
of developed a relationship where they feel like
they can rely on my advice, and then
I'm not blowing them off or
just saying that their pain made up in
their head.
Absolutely. Well, doctor Hai Jensen, I wanna thank
you for your time today, but before I
let you go, is there anything else that
listeners should know?
You know, I think,
if they realize how hard
we as physicians try to help patients. And
we really do wanna be there to help
them.
With whatever
tips and techniques that we have. Sometimes
as a physician, I'm frustrated because I don't
have more things to offer the patient
But I think if we work together, even
if I don't have a lot of magical
medications or procedures to heal people. Usually, we
can work together to find solutions that can
help patients live a more productive life.
Absolutely. Well, Doctor. Han, and I wanna thank
you once again for your time today, and
for joining me on the Becker health podcast.
Thank you very much.
Health