Keeping a full social calendar may help protect you from dementia.
13% of patients lie to their doctors; 32% stretch the truth.
A liberal's case against EMRs.
An insider's view of the Obama ideas for containing health care costs: "It's all a myth."
Tag Archives: doctors
Will US Health Reform be Bad for Canada?
An article in the (Canadian) National Post worries that Obama’s health proposal will lure doctors from Canada. After Massachusetts passed its universal mandate, it found that it didn’t have enough physicians to meet the demand. Higher pay in the United States might entice Canadian physicians to travel South in search of better compensation or working conditions. The United States already relies on foreign-trained physicians for one-quarter of its residency slots.
Hat tip to the Wall Street Journal blog.
Hits & Misses – 2008/12/15
Age-adjusted, Canada spends the most on health care.
Mass. Health Plan: It's costing 85% more than originally projected.
Clinical Trials: Investors learn the results; participants rarely do.
Washington State: Nearly 1/3 of doctors have shut the door to new Medicare patients.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3drqJ1bUmEA
The Blues
Free Drug Samples
Some medical centers are banning them. Here's why:
- "In 2004, drug makers handed out free samples to U.S. doctors with a retail value of nearly $16 billion." [link]
- "But samples spur doctors to prescribe these more expensive brand-name drugs." Without samples, "doctors were three times more likely to prescribe less-expensive generics to uninsured patients." [link]
- Also, "most samples go to insured patients," [study gated, but with abstract] rather than to people who need financial help.
Full story here.
Doctors Behaving Badly
According to one estimate, 3 to 4 percent of physicians are abusive or disruptive when dealing with subordinates. About two-thirds of health care workers surveyed believe there is a link between disruptive behavior and medical errors. Nearly one-in-five reported knowing of a mistake that occurred because of an obnoxious doctor.
When subordinates are afraid to share their concerns with a physician about a patient's care, medical errors can occur that might not have happened in a more collaborative atmosphere.
Four-in-ten hospital staffers report having been so intimidated by a doctor that they did not speak up about a medication order that appeared to be incorrect.
Full story here.
Doctors Online
It's amazing what the free market can do:
Patients will no longer have to wait a month to see a doctor for an urgent sore throat, wait all day for a doctor to return their call or leave work midday and drive a long distance for a routine appointment. Instead, patients will log on to their computers and find themselves face-to-face with physicians over Webcam.
They also have electronic medical records and malpractice insurance. Medicare patients need not apply.
You Too Can Have a Concierge Doctor
Cost: $2,000 a year ($500 for a child). In return, you get 24-hour access to doctors, unhurried appointments, home visits and state-of-the-art annual physicals. In some cases, you get cell phone and e-mail access. “Concierge” or “boutique” doctors are stepping outside the insurance system and repackaging and repricing their services. Explains one doctor:
Traditional practice right now is totally geared toward the treatment of illness….. For those patients who want what the system does not offer, shouldn’t they be given the choice? When I know I am not managing your Type 2 diabetes because I only have 10 minutes and God forbid you end up blind or amputated as a result, something is wrong with the morality of that approach and the ethics.
Parkland ER Update
Woman checks in with a leg bone fracture. After a 19-hour wait, she complains. Staffer responds, “You’re not the only one; there are people who have been here 21 and 22 hours.” Woman leaves without ever seeing a doctor. Gets bill for $162.
Previous Parkland posts are here and here.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6HzEUz9BaA
Lionel Richie singing “All Night Long”