November 25th, 2009 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Amateur, Clinical Knowledge, ePatients, Internet, Judgment, Online Health, Physicians, Seth Godin
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Read Seth Godin’s most recent post, The Amateur Scientist. In a way that only Seth can do he tells how our culture has turned us all into authorities. Important stuff.
I couldn’t help but think how this applies to the Internet and our health. Unrestrained access to information has got us all thinking we know more than we do. Godin wasn’t writing about the amateur physician but he might as well have been.
Missing from the black bag of the amateur physician is a tool called clinical judgment – the pivotal substrate necessary to tie together objective clinical information. Clinical judgment is the foundation of good medical decision-making. But you won’t find it on the Internet. It can’t be found in the cloud or the hive. It isn’t free and it’s tough to get. Read more »
November 25th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: CMS, Fraud, Handwriting, Illegible, Internal Medicine, Medicare, Medicare Fraud
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How widespread is Medicare fraud? The government is now reporting Medicare fraud rates almost three times higher than previously accounted for, at 47 billion dollars this year. How could Medicare Fraud triple in a year? The answer is simple.
In an effort to be more honest with data collecting, Obama ordered the new accounting into effect. All part of the hope and change we always hear about.
It’s not clear whether Medicare fraud is actually worsening. Much of the increase in the last year is attributed to a change in the Health and Human Services Department’s methodology that imposes stricter documentation requirements and includes more improper payments — part of a data-collection effort being ordered government-wide by President Barack Obama next week to promote “honest budgeting” and accurate statistics.
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*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
November 25th, 2009 by MotherJonesRN in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Evaluation, Fort Hood, Going Postal, Homicide, Mental Health, Military, Nursing, Psychiatry, Snap, Snapping
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Dear Uncle Sam:
I know it’s been a rough week. I’m sure you’re grieving the lost of life at Fort Hood just like the rest of us, but I’m compelled to write you this letter. I hope you take it in the spirit in which it is meant.
I read an article at Salon.com today that made me wonder about your judgement. Since when did you stop listening to your doctors? The article was about Dr. Kernan Manion, a psychiatrist who wanted to help troops before they went postal on military bases. Uncle Sam, Dr. Manion use to work for you at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Then he got fired. Why did you give Dr. Manion the boot for stating the obvious? He pointed out that troops at Camp Lejeune are getting bullied by superiors and dumped into an overwhelmed mental health care system when they asked for psychiatric help. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Nurse Ratched's Place*
November 24th, 2009 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: ABMS, ABPS, Board Certification, Emergency Medicine, Moonlighting, Standards
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This post at The Central Line caught my eye:
The Texas Medical Board ruled on Oct. 20 that physicians certified by the American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS) could advertise themselves as board certified to the public.
The ABPS is the certifying body of the American Association of Physician Specialties (AAPS). The ABPS sponsors 17 boards of certification, including the Board of Certification in Emergency Medicine (BCEM).
For a number of years, ABPS, in conjunction with AAPS, has been seeking recognition from various state medical boards, requesting that they allow physicians certified through an ABPS board to advertise themselves as board certified. The organizations were successful in Florida in 2002 but were recently rebuffed by the State of New York due to the lack of residency training as a qualification for ABPS board certification.
ACEP does not recognize BCEM as a certifying body in emergency medicine. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
November 23rd, 2009 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: Adverse Event, Connecticut, Cover Up, Disclose, Hide, Hospital Errors, Legislature, Medical Errors, Medical Mistakes, Reporting
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There is a disturbing story in the Hartford Courant (via the WSJ Health Blog) on how Connecticut state lawmakers have helped hospitals keep medical mistakes secret from the public. It’s true:
The legislature in 2002 ordered hospitals to disclose all serious patient injuries “associated with medical management.” But after the first reports were made public, hospital lobbyists persuaded lawmakers to rewrite the statute in 2004, limiting the kinds of adverse events that must be divulged, and promising to keep reports secret unless they led to an investigation.
What happened next is predictable. According to the Courant, public access to data about hospital adverse events dropped by 90%. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
