In the film starring Denzel Washington, John Q, holds a hospital hostage to save his son's life and while this is an inspirational story with an improbable happy ending, one can only wonder how many lives would have been lost in real life were this to happen.

The Occupy Wall Street movement that has dominated news channels and social media for the past 5 days is only one guillotine short of a revolution, but what I find most disturbing is that it is essentially an angry group of citizens with no clear agenda. Anger and Anarchy are destructive, what is needed here is creative disruption, not just reactive disruption.

The broken healthcare system also makes many of us frustrated and angry and indeed there is some talk of an OccupyHealthcare movement, but there is a problem with such a disruption in healthcare.  Healthcare is Too Important to Fail.  We are talking about human lives and while I think that there are major changes that would be addressed in the wake of radical action, anything that disturbs the care delivery system will have an immediate impact on lives, and that is not acceptable.

Until there is a clear plan, a set of directives, an Occupy Healthcare movement must avoid care disruption.  I know it is trite and overused, but let’s start by taking a line from the Hippocratic oath, primum non nocere or ‘First, do no harm.’

So this means no camp outs, no boycotts, no sit ins, and certainly no Dog Day Afternoon/ John Q inspired moments.

There would appear to be some hope though.  Healthcare Reform (PPACA) has many provisions that are intended to level the playing field.  Unfortunately though, our fractured and misaligned industry players have been true to form.  Insurance companies are playing all the angles, earning record profits and raising premiums while the actual utilization and cost metrics decline.  Hospitals are gobbling up small practices at a frightening rate in anticipation of renewed pricing pressure with a circle the wagons (and capture the referral base) mentality, as usual.  Meanwhile, the majority of Physicians have largely kept their heads down and just kept doing what they have been doing for the past 30 years.  For example, only 30 -35% of Physicians have taken advantage of the huge incentives to implement EMRs, one solution that could vastly reduce the cost of care.  Patients, on the other hand offer a real glimmer of hope.  More are self educating than ever and millions are getting involved, adopting self-care proactive strategies, eating better, and even shopping for care.  The e-patient movement provides hope for us all because where the patients go, the industry will need to follow.

Another reason to hope are startups like ours, Practice Fusion, DrChrono, Register Patient, Your Nurse is On, HealthcareBlueBook, and a thousand others that are innovating to solve the myriad problems in healthcare, trying to beat the clock before incentives, time, and the money completely runs out.

To take the Electronic Medical Record example again, I know I used to spend about $50,000 a month running the IT for 150 doctor’s offices and two large medical billing companies.  Now, several free EMRs are available that improve medical office efficiency and require only an iPad to run.  Now that is revolutionary!  Same thing with Register Patient, a cloud based solution that streamlined the data entry and appointment making process for doctors and patients.  Communication tools like Talk About Health let patients learn from each other and expert providers, saving everyone time and money in appointments are leveling the playing field.  And, of course, FairCare taking the 30% that insurance companies waste and giving it back to doctors and patients like some sort of Keynsian Robin Hood, is making a real difference.  Want to cut the cost of care by 30% or even 50%, this is imminently doable.  I know because we do it every day here.

So here is my OccupyHealthcare Manifesto:

Doctors and Patients, if you are sick of how the system works, do something about it.  Don’t wait for failure, prepare for the inevitable and get ahead of the wave.

Doctors, Practice Administrators, and Hospital Executives:  Embrace innovation that makes care more affordable and improves your bottom line.  You can activate a free account on any of the above services, reduce your cost of doing business, reduce overhead, and pass the savings on to the patient.  Medicare will be bankrupt soon, so this is a survival tactic as well.

Patients:  Utilize these automated systems and favor the doctors who also do.  Examples: Macarthur OBGYN, Howard Luks, Qliance, One Medical, Care Practice, ExclusiveMD, or any of the doctors on FairCareMD are these innovators, so seek them out.  (If you know or are one, please use our recommend a doc feature and we will invite her or him for a free account.)  Also, use the new systems and websites to make care more efficient and self educate as much as possible.  Don’t know where to start? Just watch this video of ePatient Dave or read a few posts by Regina Holliday.  We are all in this together, so meet your doctor half way and make the job easier.  For example, if you are overweight, try to reduce your risk of diabetes or heart attack by seriously dieting.  Most importantly, take responsibility and stop thinking someone else will pay for your health care.  That is unfair thinking and not realistic.  Someone always pays.  How much is paid depends on you, to a large extent.

Medicine is too important to allow to descend into anarchy or walled communities of care where only the rich can afford to be well.  This boils down to…

The first two tenets of #Occupy Healthcare:

1. Do No Harm, do not disrupt the delivery system

2.  We all must Embrace Innovation that Redhttp://blog.faircaremd.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1342&action=edit&message=1uces the Cost of Delivering or Receiving Care

The rest us up to you.

The Innovators will keep on innovating.

The ePatients will keep on getting involved in their care decisions and making the Physican’s job faster and easier.

Proactive providers and institutions will continue to step up and reduce the cost of care.

Some proactive insurance companies will continue to embrace methods that not only make investors happy, but also make people healthy (no, they are not mutually exclusive goals.)

So what will you do to Occupy Healthcare?

Will you evaluate a new system?

Will you open a Surgical Center?

Will you learn everything there is to know about your problem?

Will you request an online appointment?

Will you offer care for a fair fee?

Will you start a wellness program in your club, work, or family?

What will you do?

If we will all to a little, we will create a radical change that will Save Healthcare, rather than just Occupy it.

Thank you for reading and your support.

Comments are welcome here or through twitter at @FairCareMD or follow Hashtag #OccupyHealthcare.