April 14th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
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Intueri (Maria) has it. Go read. Really. I’ll wait. Go read then and come back here, because I have something to say, too. She writes beautifully, and it’s a hard read. I almost stopped before I finished it, and I did flinch more than once. The man she writes about was in my ER today, or at least someone very like him.
He was rolled onto a hallway gurney, given a cursory inspection, and left to sleep it off before being given the “bum’s rush out” when he became more sober and obnoxious. He was viewed by the staff as an irritation, a burden, an annoyance. Smelly, dirty and creepy. Scaring the children as they walked by to their rooms. Nurses were short-tempered and brusque to him, and the doctors avoided him as much as possible. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
April 14th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
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If you think the overcrowding in emergency rooms across the country is because of the uninsured, think again.
A new study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine reports that of patients who are frequent users (over 4 times a year) of emergency departments (ED), the uninsured represent only 15 percent of those frequent users.
Also, the frequent ED users were more likely than occasional users to have visited a primary care physician in the previous year.
They also found that most patients who frequently use the ED have health insurance and the majority of users (60 percent) were white. These findings contradict the widely held assumption that frequent users are minorities or illegal immigrants without insurance. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
April 9th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, True Stories
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With the attention rightly focused on patient safety, what about healthcare workers? It’s somewhat of a hidden phenomenon, but attacks on doctors and nurses are on the rise.
Rahul Parikh writes about this in a recent Slate piece. He cites data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which found “healthcare workers are twice as likely as those in other fields to experience an injury from a violent act at work, with nurses being the most common victims.”
In the article, Parikh goes on to detail an attack on a physician who initially refused to give his patient opioid pain medications. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
April 7th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Primary Care Wednesdays
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Overuse of the emergency department is commonly discussed during the healthcare conversation, especially with the lack of primary care access shunting patients with seemingly routine symptoms to the ER. But is this a myth? That’s what two emergency physicians contend in a piece from Slate.
The emergency department is functioning just fine, they say: “Just 12 percent of ER visits are not urgent. People also tend to think ER visits cost far more than primary care, but even this is disputable. In fact, the marginal cost of treating less acute patients in the ER is lower than paying off-hours primary care doctors, as ERs are already open 24/7 to handle life-threatening emergencies.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
April 5th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
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We learn from the healthcare reform bill that the federal government will help subsidize Medicaid funding for all the new patients who qualify, but they will only do it for two years. After that, the states are on their own. Medicaid unfunded liabilities will crush state governments everywhere.
Why is Medicaid so expensive and going bankrupt? I’ll give you one example why. This is played out day after day, night after night in communities all across our country. And the only ones paying for it are you and me. The ones spending all the money have no incentive to stop.
I’m in the ER the other day when I see a chief complaint fly by on the radar. What is that chief complaint, you ask? Let me tell you a story.
Refused By Detox
The patient was so drunk even the community detox center refused him. So how did this play out? The patient was taken by ambulance from his home to a small-town community ER for altered mental status. There he was checked into the ER and seen by a small-town community ER physician, family practice resident, or PA or NP.
Diagnosis: Acute alcohol intoxication. Plan: Discharge to community detox center. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
