November 4th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Cardiology, Emergency Medicine, Hospital Acquired Infection, Hospitals, Internal Medicine, Quality, Stethoscope
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When a patient comes in with an infection related diagnoses, efforts are often undertaken to keep that pathogen from spreading to other patient rooms. In British hospitals they’ve banned ties and long sleeves. At Happy’s hospital we place a dedicated stethoscope in the patient’s room which is then shared by all health care workers caring for the patient. And that stethoscope shall remain forever in that patient’s room.
At Happy’s hospital, the dedicated stethoscopes look like they were made in a Chinese toy factory. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*
November 2nd, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Banning Kids, Evidence, Flu, H1N1, Hospital Visitation, Infection Control, Infectious Disease, Influenza, Science, Swine Flu
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I learned recently that Happy’s hospital was one of a growing number of hospitals nationwide banning children from entry during the pandemic H1N1 flu to protect their patients. But where is the science that says it works?
Hospitals nationwide are making up their policies as they go along.
The result? Huge variation. The large Stanford University Hospital in California on Monday barred anyone under 16 from visiting, while the small Central Vermont Hospital turned away the under-12 crowd. Other hospitals have settled on 14 or 18.
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*
October 27th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements, Humor, True Stories
Tags: #epatcon, A Tale Of Two ePatients, Dr. Val, Dr. Val Jones, ePatient, ePatient Connections 2009, Limerick
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Today I presented 20 slides in 20 seconds each at the ePatient Connections conference in Philadelphia. It was in the new “Pecha Kucha” format whereby the presenter must encapsulate her thoughts very carefully as the slides advance automatically each 20 seconds.
I decided to do it as a Limerick, since timing could be more easily gaged that way. I wasn’t sure how the presentation would be received, but the crowd loved it and asked for a copy of my slide deck… so for you conference attendees who wanted it… here it is:
And here is what I was reading as the show advanced (the slides advanced every 2 verses). Enjoy! Read more »
October 27th, 2009 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, True Stories
Tags: Attorney, Costs, Emergency Medicine, Fees, Finance, Healthcare reform, Law Suits, medicaid, Medical Malpractice, Physicians
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I had an interesting visit with the husband of my niece last evening. He works as an ER doctor that is self-insured group of 60 physicians that cover the ER needs of four hospitals in Clark County near Las Vegas.
What is interesting is they are self-insured to save costs. As a group, then, they know how much per patient they must collect to assure liability care for every patient that comes to their emergency rooms.
That amount is $17 per patient per visit.
Guess how much their group receives for care they render to a Medicaid patient for a “level two” visit (minor problem: ear ache, sore throat, etc.)
Fourteen dollars per visit. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
October 26th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in True Stories
Tags: Advertising, Blog, FTC, How To Monetize Your Blog, Lead Generation, Links, Medblog, Medbloggers, Medical Blog, Monetization, Monetize, Online Health, Sales, Scams, Solicitation
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I entered the wonderful world of blogging in 2006, full of enthusiasm and wide-eyed innocence. I still have the enthusiasm, but the naivety is fading fast.
Over the years I’ve seen so many scams and dishonest “partnership” propositions that I’m beginning to wonder if the Internet is an exceptionally seedy place. The medbloggers I know are genuine, caring people – and that’s probably why they are regularly targeted by unscrupulous people trying to make a buck off blogger credibility.
Take for example an online salesman who contacted me recently. He began the conversation with, “Better Health has such great content. My online network has 5 million unique viewers per month and we’re looking for more high-quality content, so would you like to talk about a content partnership opportunity?”
Silly me, assuming that he meant he’d like to syndicate our content and understood the value of good writing. Here’s how the conversation actually went: Read more »
