The medical and healthcare landscapes are vast and overwhelming, and as a consumer, it’s easy to feel like an anonymous face in the crowd. Dr. Michael Fratkin, CEO and founder of ResolutionCare, has been working to improve the care experience for people for most of his career, and founded ResolutionCare based on the idea that people are more than their bodies, more than their diseases, and more than the challenges they face.

Based in Northern California, Dr. Fratkin and his team specialize in providing palliative care for people in the comfort and familiarity of home, utilizing a network of experts who share a commitment to person-centered, at home health care.

In this episode of Help Choose Home, we discuss the:

• Importance of taking care of people, not patients
• Human experience of navigating a chronic or life-limiting disease
• Impact of helping people change how they face serious illness
• Transformative power of telemedicine to level the playing field

Below are some highlights from our conversation:

• [2:45] Dr. Fratkin explains how a serious illness, and how it impacts a person’s body, is only part of the story.
• [3:20] Discover why it’s important to look beyond the physical aspects of a disease to the human experience of navigating a disease.
• [4:30] Dr. Fratkin and his team are working to change how people face serious illness and create the best possible outcomes for people, their families and quality of life.
• [7:00] People should not see themselves as patients, or even as consumers, but as people empowered to access healthcare in a location that makes sense to them.
• [9:00] Learn how Dr. Fratkin recommends being seen as a person and not as a patient in a clinical setting.
• [12:08] Dr. Fratkin explains his comprehensive view of palliative care.
• [16:35] Learn about a tool that helps level the playing field to deliver a more comprehensive care experience for both medical professionals and individuals.
• [19:00] Dr. Fratkin outlines how to build relationships, trust and support between individuals and their physicians.

After listening to today’s episode, I think that, like me, you’ll be an instant fan of Dr. Fratkin and his whole person approach to care. His insights are great tools for all individuals and physicians, and have broad implications beyond palliative care.

You can listen to today’s episode here, or on Apple Podcasts, Google,  YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.

To learn more about the important role palliative care plays in helping individuals and their families, listen to my interview with Dr. Timothy Ihrig, a palliative care specialist and chief medical officer at Crossroads Hospice. Dr. Ihrig discusses how palliative care has the potential to transcend and transform the healthcare system by helping focus on how a person wants to live.

If this episode has been helpful, be sure to leave a five-star review and share the podcast with your friends to help us in the national effort to educate about home health care options! You can connect with me, Merrily Orsini, on Twitter@MerrilyO.