Better Health: Smart Health Commentary Better Health (TM): smart health commentary



Latest Posts

Voice Transcription Adventures With A Southern Accent

No Comments »

The patient has fluferculosis, buperculosis, conbumption, arg!

The patient has fluferculosis, buperculosis, conbumption, arg!

I’ve dictated charts since I started private practice 16 years ago.  Although I like to think that I’m pretty good with the English language, it turns out that when I speak it, I mumble, slur and frequently dictate things that make no sense to the transcriptionist.

A standard chart for me might look like this:

‘This 44-year-old_____ complains of several days of ______ severe in the_______right______explosive and sudden in quanset.  (Unable to understand physician)….and stated that she(he) {please clarify} would not be short of ______ usually has no pain in _____ when she (he) falls onto the crown?’

Now, this is difficult enough, as you might expect.  And  often worse when I’m finishing a night shift, and the chart says ‘the patient is awake, alert and sleeping quietly at discharge,zzzzz.’

But voice transcription takes it to a new level.   Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*

When Is It Safe For A Patient To Leave The Hospital?

No Comments »

When I initiate  final hospital discharge planning, I am making a clinical judgment that the patient is safe to leave the monitored confines of the hospital system. Hospital discharge planning begins on the day of admission.

Good hospitalists are always thinking in their minds how to get the patient safely discharged in the quickest, safest and most efficient way possible.

Sometimes the patient wishes to leave against the medical advice of the physician.  Sometimes they refuse to leave at the advice of the physician.  And sometimes the physician and patient agree it’s time for the next level of care. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*

When A Second Opinion Saves A Child’s Life

No Comments »

Your child seems half dead to you, but you’re frozen with uncertainty.  Are they just being whiny?  Is that fever going to pass quickly?  When do I know if my child needs an emergency assessment?  When do I know if they need emergency medical care?

I recently got involved in just a situation with one of Mrs. Happy’s friends.  She has a young child, about four years old who came down with a fever a week ago.  The child has a history of asthma and a history of supraventricular tachycardia.  The child was meandering along doing fine when one day his condition changed. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*

Dr. Val Tells ABC News About Hospital Errors And How To Avoid Them

2 Comments »

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtC_8KJZrkI

I kick off this segment with a surprising twist: I describe a hospital error that I experienced as a patient in the ER of a famous academic medical center.  And yes, I give a shout out to Paul Levy at minute 5 for his courageous efforts to reduce infection rates at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Physicians And Open Source Health Advice

No Comments »

Last week someone posted on Twitter that they had swallowed a plastic toothpick. What to do? So they turned to the hive for help. “What should I do?” I thought as I read my Twitter feed. I was paralyzed in a way. I wanted to share my experience with hundreds of patients had swallowed pins, toothpicks and other pointy things. I specialize in just this sort of thing. But short of a random comment about gastric emptying, I kept to myself. Why? Because once I lend a hand I’m all in.

The simple offer of patient-specific advice constitutes a relationship in the eyes of the law. Once involved, I potentially share responsibility in whatever happens to someone. Crazy but true. It’s just a matter of time before slip-and-fall lawyers hold physicians accountable for helping out in the social sphere.

Doctors aren’t the only ones wearing targets. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

Read more »

How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

Read more »

See all interviews »

Latest Cartoon

See all cartoons »

Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

Read more »

The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

Read more »

Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

Read more »

See all book reviews »

Commented - Most Popular Articles