Group Medical Appointments

DeeAnn K. Schmucker, MSW, LCSW, graduated from Hesston College in Hesston, Kansas. She received a bachelor's degree in social work from Bowling Green State University, U.S.A. and completed a Master of Social Work Degree, specializing in health care, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A. Throughout her career, DeeAnn has created focused therapies for a wide range of populations. She has worked in long-term care facilities, neonatal intensive care units, inpatient acute and rehabilitation hospitals, and a variety of outpatient settings.

Whatever the setting or situation, DeeAnn is always nudging others to take action that will improve the quality of their lives. As a health educator, she implemented a walking club and a book club for seniors to maintain their physical and mental abilities and to develop and foster supportive relationships. She became a trusted confidante and mentor, encouraging each participant one step farther today than yesterday or one question deeper into the theme of a novel. The interest and trust shown allowed participants to share aspects of themselves and stories that are part of their life history and that they never had the opportunity to share with others before. As a result, healing occurred, and each person's health was taken to a new level.

DeeAnn has written a variety of health education courses covering the topics of mental health and retirement, stress management, healthy lifestyle choices for seniors, and staff training manuals about sensitivity training for senior citizen patients. Collaborating with Kate Lorig, RN, DrPH, Stanford University School of Medicine Professor, and Director, Patient Education Research Center, DeeAnn co-developed a course for patients with chronic pain. By helping these patients understand the pain cycle, the patients could see behaviors that contributed to their pain and make modifications in those behaviors. Recently, DeeAnn has broadened her study of pain learning from John E. Leonard, PhD, and his Neurobehavioral Programs, another tool to help patients turn off their pain.

Establishing a group medical appointment program gave DeeAnn an ideal setting and opportunity to use these, as well as all of her other skills to enhance the patient's and physician's experience of health care. As a facilitator, she created an environment for patients and physicians to learn not only from her, but also from each other. DeeAnn is quick, however, to say that she is the one who learned the most. With the added support of a group, patients in group medical appointments made changes in weeks that they had not been able to make in years. Physicians experienced joy in practicing medicine again; some physicians said group medical appointments kept them from leaving medicine.

These experiences made DeeAnn an enthusiastic proponent of this tool. As a consultant and group medical appointment champion, she skillfully and with the wisdom of years of experience speaks directly to the concerns of skeptics. Ironically, these very skeptics are the ones who often end up being the first to start a group medical appointment in their organization. They begin to see that there is another way to provide health care where patients are partners in addressing their health and that of the other group members. This makes the physician's job easier.

Creating opportunities for patients to be partners in their health care is a lifelong pursuit for DeeAnn. She continues to learn something new from each interaction she has, whether it is nudging a patient, challenging a physician, or collaborating with another pioneer to develop even more strategies for clinical innovation.

DeeAnn makes her home with her husband Darrel; two children, Eric and Kaitlin; and toy fox terrier, Rosie, in northern California. She balances her professional work with good friendships, daily walks along the American River, singing, avid reading, and as much fun and laughter as others are able to tolerate.