March 26th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Humor, Opinion
Tags: Competent Doctor, General Medicine, Hospital Outcomes, Hospital Quality Imrprovement, Men's Health Magazine, Patient Satisfaction, Sexy Nurse
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From the Tonight Show and the Jay Leno News Service comes this morsel of information about doctors, nurses, patients and hospitals. According to Jay, a Men’s Health poll indicates that 65 percent of men would prefer a sexy nurse over a competent doctor. That’s shocking, but not surprising. I suppose it takes a lot of pressure off the doctors for a perfect hospital outcome. Unless, of course, the nurse happens to be ugly.
I can see it now: In an effort to improve patient satisfaction and reduce malpractice risk, hospitals just need to fire the ugly nurses and keep the hot ones. In fact, as a hospitalist, my malpractice risk depends on it. Forget about all the other quality improvement junk we put ourselves through. I’d put my money on hot nurses any day.
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
March 26th, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Humor, Opinion, Quackery Exposed
Tags: American Medical Writers Association, Health Policy Research, Healthcare Bill, Healthcare reform, Medical Content Sweatshops, Medical Writers, White Paper
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A member of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) freelance listserve recently posted this help-wanted ad from Craig’s List:
“We’re looking for an experienced analyst/wordsmith to make sense of the health care bill. We will pay a per-project fee for a qualified writer to put some hard work into summarizing the bill in an 8-10 page white paper. We have a strong preference for individuals with a background in Sociology, Policy Research, Health Care, or statistical analysis. Above all, however, you should have some clippings to point us to so we can evaluate your writing chops. As you can see, this report will include a lot of information, but it’s important that you are succinct and clear in your prose. Think of it as a detailed study done by a respected think tank, but produced for the average consumer.”
The “fee” (and I use the term loosely) for this “detailed study” (?) is $100, which wouldn’t even cover the cost of toner to print out the full bill for reading! (Hence the title of this blog.)
The people behind this posting are not the only ones smoking something, however. Content sweatshop Demand Inc has also been trolling for writers, offering what amounts to a few pennies a word for churning out short articles on topics that a mathematical equation has determined will bring in the most webpage visitors, spiking ad revenue. The sad part is that thousands of my fellow freelancers have taken up the challenge earning, if they’re lucky, about $20 an hour (before taxes and with all expenses out of their own pocket). Most earn far less. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Medical Writer's Musings on Medicine and Health Care*
March 26th, 2010 by CodeBlog in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
Tags: AICD, Cardiology, Low Battery Alarm, Pacemaker
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I received this email from a dear friend of mine recently:
So, for the last 2 1/2 weeks my husband and I have been seranaded with alarm tones every day. We thought it was the new alarm system we had installed (it does a lot of automatic things we have since disabled), then we thought it was the smoke detectors…a new ringtone on our iPhone?… the battery charger on his new bike…his computer when his e-mail was hijacked?…the battery on my bike mileage computer?…my new alarm clock?…the refrigerator ice maker?…the clothes dryer? …everyday we checked everything, and everyday we thought we had found and fixed the culprit, until the next morning when we would hear it again!
It was not until yesterday morning when we figured it out… can you guess?
It was coming from my husband’s chest! The battery on his pacemaker/AICD was alarming to let us know that he was just about out of juice! Four years ago they told us we would hear that when the battery got low, but that was a very long time ago…and it just didn’t sound like it was coming from him! We sent a modem transmission, and the doctor called back to say, “come on in!”
After talking with my friend later, I found out that her husband had his pacemaker replaced and all is well. It took about 2 weeks to figure out where the alarm was coming from, since it only sounded once a day and only for about 20 seconds at that. My friend expressed disbelief that it was so hard to determine that it was coming from her husband but surmised that going through body tissues helped the sound disperse enough to make it a mystery!
This left me wondering if any of Dr. Wes’ patients have had similar trouble with figuring out that their chests were alarming!
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*
March 26th, 2010 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Barbie Syndrome, BDD, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Cosmetic Enhancement, Dr. Glenn Braunstein, Obsession With Appearance, Plastic Surgery
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Interesting article in the Huffington Post last week by Dr. Glenn D. Braunstein: Oh, You Beautiful Doll: Plastic Surgery Risks and Rewards. The article discusses the “Barbie Syndrome” or more accurately “Body Dysmorphic Disorder.” I love this line:
And, finally, try to have realistic expectations — it is unlikely that cosmetic enhancement is going to drastically change your life — after all, you are human, and not a plastic doll.
The article reminded me of my post on Suitability. Not all patients should have surgery. Their reasons for desiring surgery, goals, and expectations should be discussed during the consultation. Risks and benefits must be weighed.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
- In its simplest definition, it is an obsessive preoccupation with a slight, imperceptible, or actually nonexistent anatomic irregularity to the degree that it interferes with normal adjustment within society.
- This disorder may be present in varying degrees. It is the most common aberrant personality characteristic seen by the plastic surgeon.
- When postoperative dissatisfaction occurs (and in most cases, it will), it almost always is based on what the patient understood rather than what was actually said.
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
March 26th, 2010 by GruntDoc in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Emergency Medicine, ER Visits, Healthcare Expenses, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, Primary Care, Unnecessary Care, Urgent Care
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Much of the ongoing healthcare reform debate has focused on unnecessary healthcare expenses—specifically, medical bills that rack up without demonstrably improving people’s health. According to Peter Orszag, the director of the Federal Office of Management and Budget, about $700 billion, or 5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, is wasted on unnecessary care, such as extra costs related to medical errors, defensive medicine, and just plain fraud.
At the center of this discussion are “unnecessary” ER visits for minor conditions—colds, headaches, and feverish babies—that could be handled more cheaply in doctors’ offices. If we could only convince patients to take their stubbed toes to urgent care clinics or primary care offices instead of ERs, the thinking goes we could save a load and help fix this whole healthcare fiasco. But there are a few problems with this logic. See:
Are most emergency room visits really unnecessary? – By Zachary F. Meisel and Jesse M. Pines, Slate Magazine
It’s a short, well-written article. It makes some good points and being an EM doctor I happen to agree with most of them, specifically that a lot of money is spent in medicine on procedures of uncertain (at best) benefit. The fix is probably correct, too, though I don’t see Americans jumping on changing their sedentary, easy lifestyles (that includes me.)
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
