September 12th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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Nostalgia for the house-call
Not too long ago, I made a house call. As a physician accustomed to working in the emergency department of a hospital, this was quite a change of pace. But it involved dear friends and their sick child, and it was a joy. We had spoken on the phone and I had some concerns about their infant, who was stricken with a high fever. When I went to their home I took only my stethoscope. That and my experience as a physician and parent of four.
When I walked through the door on Friday evening there were candles burning as dinner was prepared. There were no florescent lights. There was none of the chaos of a waiting room. No ambulances idled outside. No bloody, angry drunk screamed profanities. No one was stood by their exam room door, arms crossed in annoyance with waiting. It was a quiet place to be; and the child, on his worried mother’s hip, was quiet as well. He was in a place where he felt safe and was thus able to tolerate my poking and prodding.
I examined him and decided that he was not seriously ill. Because his mother had described him as lethargic when we spoke, I had been concerned that he might have meningitis. This was not actually the case. His parents and I were obviously relieved.
After he was dosed with ibuprofen and put to bed, I chatted a while with his mom and dad, then left for home. As I drove home I realized that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
September 12th, 2011 by ChristopherChangMD in News
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Surgery is messy… and I don’t mean in terms of blood and guts…
What I mean are wires, cables, tubing, etc.
Electric cord for the operating tableLet’s take a routine tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy for example…
- Electric cord for the anesthesia machine
- Electric cord for the surgeon’s headlight
- Light cord from the surgeon’s headlight to the lightbox
- Breathing circuit tube from the patient to the anesthesia machine
- Carbon dioxide outflow tube from the patient to the anesthesia machine
- Suction tubing from the surgical table to the vacuum canister
- Vacuum cable from the vacuum canister to the wall socket
- Electrocautery cable (along with electric cord to power the machine)
- Coblation cable (along with electric cord to power the machine)
- IV fluids lines from patient to IV bags
- EKG lines
- Grounding pad cable
- All the wires and cables that go with running a computer
- etc. etc. etc. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Fauquier ENT Blog*
September 11th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
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Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents said they look up information online in front of a patient sometimes or often, and another 11% said they do when absolutely needed. Only 13% deliberately avoid it.
ACP Internist polled its readers in relation to its story on computers in medicine, in which it focused on whether doctors should look up information in front of a patient. From this, 362 readers responded in August that: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
September 11th, 2011 by DrWes in Health Policy, Opinion
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It was supposed to be one of a series of “measures to improve safety, reliability, patient experience, staff satisfaction and efficiency of medicine management.” Instead, the wearing of red “tabards” by nurses that read “Do Not Disturb” while they distributed medications has proven to be the straw that broke the camel’s back in England. While the “Do Not Disturb” message on the tabards was replaced with a message that reads “Drug Round in Progress,” isn’t the message the same?
Directive Number 99365.23a: “In the Name of Safety, Do Not Bother Me While I Hand Out Medications.”
It seems almost too incredible to believe and yet, this is how it’s playing out now in England’s National Health Service. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
September 11th, 2011 by DavedeBronkart in News
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Big news from Down Under: the Sydney Morning Herald reports that a group of fifty consumer health advocates has unanimously backed an “opt-out” process for enrollment in electronic health records, reversing their previous position.
The issue is whether by default all patients have an EHR. “Opt-out” means you’re in by default – your records will be stored electronically – and you can opt out if you want. “Opt-in” means you do not have an EHR unless you specifically ask for one.
The group, the Consumer Health Forum, cites evidence from the neighboring country of New Zealand, in which Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*
