April 3rd, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
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Patient care is increasingly under third party control. And as a consequence I make fewer decisions regarding the brand of medication used in my patients.
So the role of a pharmaceutical rep comes into question. If I don’t choose which medication my patients will use, why would a representative call on me? And as American medicine becomes more centralized and standardized, I wonder how and why industry will connect with treating physicians. Pharma it seems is asking the same question: Of the core medications I prescribe, I see far fewer reps these days and our relationships are markedly different from a decade ago.
I don’t miss the pitch. But I find the element of human support to be important. For example, recently the FDA issued a black box warning for the concomitant use of Remicade and 6-MP. My representative visited to be sure that I was aware of the changes in the product insert. Sure the information was in my mailbox – along with 6 inches of pulp spam. It’s basic attenionomics: I’m more likely to hear a person than a letter. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
April 3rd, 2011 by KerriSparling in Humor, True Stories
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It’s been well-documented that my coffee addiction is … substantial. Briefly on hiatus during my pregnancy, I was reunited with my beloved beverage after the baby was born, and now I’m back in the habit.
Since I work from our home office and I’m also the primary caregiver for BSparl, sleep is a hot commodity. Actually, I don’t get to sleep much, so the coffee is very much my friend these days. Work hard, play hard, drink much of the coffee.
The other day, I was out with the baby, running a few errands. I had to visit the post office, the grocery store, CVS … and Dunkin Donuts. I try to make my order sound fresh and new (versus something I say almost without thinking), and I leaned out the window to order into the drive through speaker. (Instead of into the garbage can, which is something I’ve done more times than I’d care to admit.)
“Hi!” Total joy. “Can I please have a medium iced coffee with cream and two Splenda?”
“Sure thing. Please drive up.”
So I drive up. But when I get to the window, there’s a little bit of confusion.
“Okay, so one coffee with milk and sugar, two doughnuts, and a bagel with cream cheese?” The boy attending the window had a bag of deliciousness in his hand. My stomach said “YES! YES. THOSE BELONG TO ME.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
April 3rd, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in Humor, True Stories
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“Take one to two pain pills by mouth every 4 to six hours”
To me that is clear. I was reminded recently that it isn’t to all patients.
A patient complained of lack of relief from her pain medicines after surgery. Her description of the pain didn’t suggest any complications so I ask how she was taking them. I was looking for a way to safely use NSAIDS or Tylenol as a boost rather than giving her something stronger.
“I take one pain pill and then wait an hour to take another one.”
I prompted her to tell me when she took the next dose.
“I wait four hours and then take one pain pill, but I wait for six hours to take the next one.”
Ah!
I had mentioned to her and her caregiver that due to her small size she should begin with just one, then wait for 30 minutes to an hour to see if she needed the second one. They were doing that, but the other part wasn’t clear. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
April 3rd, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in News
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Patients may not want to discuss clinical matters via social media, but they’d gladly set pay their bills when reminded. Social media’s value in communicating with patients is limited to the administrative aspects of it.
Americans still want traditional ways of communication when they need a clinical consult. A survey finds 84% would not use social media or instant messaging channels for medical communication if their doctors offered it, according to the communications firm Capstrat.
Respondents were more favorable toward conferring with the doctor via e-mail (52%) than they were by Twitter and Facebook (11%), chat or instant messaging (20%) or a private online forum (31%).
Even among those 18 to 29 years old, 21% said they would take advantage of an online forum if their doctor offered it, while 72% would take advantage of a nurse help line if available.
Respondents said they’d take advantage of online appointment scheduling (52%), online access to medical records (50%), or online bill payment (48%).
“It appears consumers are willing to move administrative experiences such as bill payment and records access online, but when it comes to conferring with their health care providers, people still prefer more traditional communications,” said the firm’s president, Karen Albritton, in a press release. “The implications include a way for doctors to free up more time for their patients by moving the right interactions online, and an opportunity to forge stronger connections through personal interaction.”
Patients want the same convenience of online appointments and bill paying from their doctor that they get in other areas of their lives, reports a second survey.
73% of those surveyed would use a secure online option to get lab results, request appointments and pay medical bills. The first caveat is that this survey was done by Intuit. The company is best known for QuickBooks, but its health care division offers patient portals for doctor’s offices. The second caveat is that respondents were surveyed online, which would skew results to people digitally inclined anyway.
With those two caveats in mind, the survey also found that:
–Almost half would consider switching doctors for a practice that offered online access.
–81% would schedule their own appointment via a secure Web service and fill out medical/registration forms online prior to their appointment.
–78% would use a secure online method to access their medical histories and share information with their doctor.
–59% of generation Y respondents said they would switch doctors for one with better online access, compared to only 29% of baby boomers.
–45% of patients wait more than a month to pay their doctor bill, and when they pay, half still send a paper check in the mail.
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
April 3rd, 2011 by DavidHarlow in Health Policy, Opinion
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Health care social media continues to be a hot-button issue for hospitals and other provider types around the country. Health care provider organizations considering taking a first step into social media often articulate concerns about regulatory and legal barriers to the use of social media in health care. As regular readers of HealthBlawg know, I believe that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure — in the health care social media arena as elsewhere. Careful planning up front will help you avoid the potential liabilities and pitfalls you may otherwise face in implementing a health care social media program. I invite you to take a look at this quick compendium of rules to live by, which I compiled with Dan Hinmon of Hive Strategies, and follow the link on the last page of the embedded presentation to download an expanded version. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog*
