December 2nd, 2011 by admin in Announcements, Health Tips
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Getting a flu vaccine is on many “to do” lists in the fall, but for those who still haven’t checked it off their list, it’s not too late to get vaccinated. Many people don’t realize that flu activity usually peaks in the United States in January or February, and flu viruses can circulate as late as May. As long as there’s flu around, it isn’t too late to get vaccinated.
Getting a yearly flu vaccine is the first and most important step in protecting against the flu, and CDC recommends influenza vaccination for everyone age 6 months and older. We urge you and all health care professionals to get vaccinated yourselves and offer flu vaccine at every opportunity to every patient—except infants younger than 6 months and the very few people for whom flu vaccination is contraindicated.
Studies show that your recommendation makes the difference in your patients’ decision to get a flu vaccine. You should continue to emphasize the importance of flu vaccination for your patients. And, if you don’t already do so, consider offering flu vaccines to patients in your own practice, even if yours is a sub-specialty practice and you don’t see yourself as a vaccine provider. Even if you don’t offer flu vaccines, you can still recommend and emphasize the importance of flu vaccination as a way to keep your patients—and their families—protected throughout the season.
As promising as it is sounds that flu vaccination rates are increasing among children and healthcare personnel, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Safe Healthcare*
December 2nd, 2011 by Nicholas Genes, M.D., Ph.D. in Opinion
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I had a couple of slow shifts in the emergency department recently, around Thanksgiving. And it made me think of Nomar Garciaparra, the old Red Sox shortstop.
Nomar always had to throw off-balance, while running and jumping. You can see his style on display when throwing the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway last year.
In an interview (can’t find the reference, sorry) he said he always had to throw this frenzied manner, even for an easy grounder where he’d normally have time to collect himself. If he paused too long to think about it, the throw would come off badly, he said.
I always thought this was a psychological issue — dubbed Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Blogborygmi*
December 2nd, 2011 by Jessie Gruman, Ph.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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Here’s the bad news: We will not benefit from the health care services, drugs, tests and procedures available to us unless we pay attention, learn about our choices, interact with our clinicians and follow through on the plans we make together. And that “following through”part? We have to work at doing that every day, whether we feel sick or well, energetic or tired out. And if we can’t do it, we’d best find a spouse or parent or friend or social service agency who can step in to do the things we can’t manage.
OK. For some people, this is not bad news. This is how we think it should be: “Nothing about me without me.” For others, our personal encounters with tests and treatments and illness have taught us that this is just the way it is.
But for many of us, this news – should we have reason to attend to it – is inconsistent with our idealized vision of health care that, tattered as its image might be, will step in, take over and fix what ails us. Most of us, after all, are mostly well most of the time and our exposure to health care is minimal.
Efforts to improve the effectiveness of health care and contain its cost have produced Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
December 2nd, 2011 by AndrewSchorr in News
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Go south from the “O.C.” – Orange County, California, where the sun shines on the beaches and girls in bikinis play volleyball, and you find yourself in San Diego, land of the surfers in the shadow of a large U.S. Navy base.
It’s also home to a large convention center right by the Pacific. And that’s where 30,000 blood doctors and researchers from around the world are about to converge for the annual American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting. Beginning December 10, they’ll absorb study data for blood related cancers like leukemia and lymphoma and blood conditions like sickle cell disease and hemophilia.
Tucked off to one corner is the news media – the regulars like The New York Times and USA Today and a host of journals read by doctors around the world. And then there’s Patient Power. This year Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*
December 1st, 2011 by KerriSparling in True Stories
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Two weeks ago, I was in the emergency room for some severe stomach pain, down on the lower right hand side of my abdomen. After consulting with Dr. Google, I realized that it could be appendicitis. Knowing I was heading to Toronto the next afternoon, I didn’t want to take any chances with this pain. So I headed off to the ER (conveniently, the one my best friend works at) to check things out.
Looooong story made Twitter-esque short, I didn’t have appendicitis. I just had some rogue stomach pain. However, while I was at the hospital, I asked to have my A1C run. I figured I was there, they were already drawing blood, so what’s one more vial?
“Can you guys grab an A1C while you’re at it?” I asked.
“Is your diabetes under control?” asked the doctor.
“Um … define control? I wear a pump, I wear a CGM, and I’m very aware of my disease. But I’ve been having a hard time juggling things lately, on just about every level, so I’m pretty sure my A1C is crap.”
The doctor shot me a very rude, very judgmental look. I shot one back at him.
“I’m asking you to run an A1C because Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
