May 26th, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Check Online, Customer Service In Healthcare, Doctor Running Late, Double-Booked, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Internet, Late Doctors, Long Waits for Patients, Lost Appointment, Medical Office Staff, Medical Offices, MedWaitTime, Overbooked, Primary Care, Real Time, Tardy Physicians, Wait For An Appointment, Wait Time, Waiting In Doctor's Office, Waiting Room, Waiting Too Long, Wall Street Journal, Web-Based Service, World Wide Web, WSJ
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I just read a Wall Street Journal article about a new web-based service called MedWaitTime that allows patients to check if their doctor is running late before heading to the office for their appointment — kind of like you can check to see if your flight is late before heading to the airport.
Brilliant.
Nothing peeves me more than sitting in a doctor’s office reading 4-month-old tattered magazines on topics I care nothing about (saltwater fishing, seriously?), and not because the doctor had an emergency (when is the last time a dermatologist had to run out to save someone), but because the office staff routinely double books. I can’t count the number of times I walked out (my limit is 30 minutes unless I’m in agony) after giving the front office a targeted piece of my mind. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Medical Writer's Musings on Medicine, Health Care, and the Writing Life*
May 26th, 2010 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Board Certification, Care Coordination, Doctor-Patient Communication, Dr. Avedis Donabedian, Empowered Patients, Evidence-Based Questions, Expert Patients, Family Doctor, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Health Grades, Healthcare Insiders, Healthcare Providers, Informed Healthcare Consumer, Internal Medicine, Medical Specialty, New Doctor, Patient Satisfaction, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Personal Physician, Primary Care, Quality Assurance, Quality in Health Care, The Lichfield Lecture, Years In Medical Practice
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What if the average patient (person) knew what healthcare insiders, providers and expert patients know?
Take the process of looking for a new personal physician. Conventional wisdom tells people that when looking for a new physician they need to consider things like specialty, board certification, years in practice, and geographic proximity. Online services like Health Grades allow you to see and compare the satisfaction scores for prospective physician candidates.
But industry insiders know different. Consider those patient satisfaction scores for physicians. In reality, “one can assume that the quality of care is actually worse than surveys of patient satisfaction would seem to show,” according to a 1991 lecture by Avedis Donabedian, M.D.:
“Often patients are, in fact, overly patient; they put up with unnecessary discomforts and grant their doctors the benefit of every doubt, until deficiencies in care are too manifest to be overlooked.”
Given the constant drumbeat about the lack of care coordination and medical errors, it would seem that some people (patients) are beginning to reach the breaking point alluded to by Dr. Donabedian. The empowered among us are starting to compare physicians (and the hospitals that employ them) to a higher standard — a higher standard that reflects the nature and quality of the medical services physicians actually provide. Empowered patients today are “being taught to be less patient, more critical, and more assertive.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
May 25th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Alcohol In Moderation, Bone Density Testing, Calcium, Carotid Ultrasound, Controlling Blood Pressure, Controlling Cholesterol, Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry, DXA, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Hip Fracture, Insurance Claims, Insurance Coverage, Internal Medicine, Life Line Screening, Low-Sodium Diet, Medicare, National Stroke Association, Not Covered By Insurance, Osteoporosis, PAD, Peripheral Artery Disease, Preventive Health, Preventive Health Services, Preventive Healthcare, Preventive Medicine, Preventive Screening, Primary Care, Quitting Smoking, Regular Exercise, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Unnecessary Medical Tests, Unnecessary Testing, USPSTF, Vascular Disease, Vitamin D
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A patient brought in a flyer for Life Line Screening, where for $129 an individual can have their carotid (neck) and peripheral (leg) arteries screened for blockage, their abdominal aorta screened for aneurysm (swelling), and be tested for osteoporosis. The advertisement claims that “we can help you avoid a stroke,” and their logo notes “Life Line Screening: The Power of Prevention.”
Are these tests worth your money? Short answer: No.
Although the flyer correctly indicates that 80 percent of stokes can be prevented, the National Stroke Assocation does not recommend ultrasound as a screening test. Preventing stroke includes quitting smoking, knowing your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers, drinking alcohol in moderation (if already doing so), exercising regularly, and eating a low-sodium diet. Their is no mention of an ultrasound test. Why? Because there is NO evidence that it helps save lives in individuals who are healthy and have no symptoms (except for the following situations). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
May 25th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
Tags: Angina, Cardiac Risk Factors, Cardiology, Coronary Artery Disease, Coronary Health, Diabetes, Elevated Lipids, Employee Health, European Heart Journal, Family Medicine, Fatal Myocardial Infarction, General Medicine, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, Heart Health, Internal Medicine, Lifestyle Changes, Lifestyle Choices, Overtime Work, Primary Care, smoking, Workaholic, Working Overtime, Working Too Much
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The European Heart Journal studied 6,000 British civil servants and followed them for 11 years. They found that working an extra 3 to 4 hours a day is associated with increased coronary heart disease.
The researchers controlled and adjusted for lifestyle, cardiac risk factors, and other factors that would skew the results, and still found that people who worked 3 to 4 extra hours a day had a 60 percent increase in risk for heart disease. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
May 25th, 2010 by CynthiaHainesMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Research
Tags: Action, British Journal Of Sports Medicine, Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Climbing Stairs, Coronary Artery Disease, Diabetes, Epidemic, Family Medicine, Fat In The Blood, General Medicine, Good Cholesterol, Health Effects, Higher Level Triglycerides, Inaction, Inactive, Inactivity, Internal Medicine, Kinesiology, Lack Of Exercise, Large Waistline, Little Or No Exercise, Lower Level HDL, Metabolic Syndrome Rish, Movement, Obese, Obesity, Overweight, Physical Exercise, Primary Care, Public Awareness, Public Health, Risk of Death, Sedentary Behavior, Sedentary Lifestyle, Sitting Disease, Stockholm, Sweden, Walking, Watching Television, Whole Body Muscular Activity, Winston Churchill
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“I never worry about action, but only about inaction.” — Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill was right: Experts are saying sedentary behavior is an epidemic, with the resulting health effects potentially devastating.
Lack of muscular activity is associated with higher incidence of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, as well as a heightened risk of death. And this is regardless of one’s level of structured physical exercise, according to the authors of an article published [recently] in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The team from Stockholm, Sweden, says that sedentary behavior has become synonymous with lack of exercise, but that this is inaccurate and misleading. Rather, sedentary behavior should be defined as whole body muscular inactivity. Read more »
