March 15th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in True Stories
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It used to strike me as odd that physicians used somewhat hostile language to describe patient behavior – “the patient is non-compliant,” “the patient refused [this-or-that drug or procedure],” “the patient denies [insert symptom here].”
After many years of using these words, I forgot just how inflammatory they are. They became part of my language, and I used them every day to describe people. I’m not really sure how this phraseology became common parlance, but it is a tad adversarial when you think of it. It sets up a kind of us versus them environment. And really, medicine is all about us in partnership with them.
I was reminded of this fact as a friend of mine described a recent “non-compliance” episode. She had been complaining of shortness of breath, and had some sort of suspicious finding on her chest CT. The pulmonary specialist (called a ‘respirologist’ in Canada) recommended a bronchoscopy. Here’s what she says,
I wish I had the chance to explain to my respirologist why I was non-compliant about the bronchoscopy. I got the impression that she thought I was being “difficult” for no good reason, and that I was wasting her time. But the truth is, all my life I’ve had this vague sense that anything big going down my throat was particularly scary to me. I knew I had trouble gagging down pills, but it never occurred to me to mention that. I also chew my food to death in order to swallow it comfortably, but I never thought about that very consciously, either. It wasn’t until months later when I had to undergo surgery for my gallbladder that my anesthesiologist (who had to intubate me) discovered that I had an internal throat deformity.
So my point is that it might be valuable for the respirologist to know that when a patient is very scared of something (especially when she is usually never scared of tests, needles, etc), it could be an important clue. I know now that bronchoscopies are not without risk. A bronchoscopy technician might not have handled the situation nearly as well as that highly-trained, very experienced anaesthesiologist did.
What I learned is this: patients don’t know how to explain things that they haven’t thought much about before, especially when they know that their doc is understandably pressured to get through her scheduled appointments on time. All they know is that they’re scared and that they want to run away. They’re not primarily out to exasperate their docs with their noncompliant attitude. Still, it isn’t easy being a doc. I’m sure noncompliant patients are indeed very irritating. But it isn’t easy being a patient, either. Being looked down upon is irritating too. Not only that, but the patient has a lot more to lose if a mistake is made. But what can you do? Everybody is under a lot of pressure when it comes to medical issues. We all just have to try to be understanding and do our best to work together for a good outcome. It’s in the best interest of both parties, so it shouldn’t have to be a battle!
Have you been a “non-compliant” patient for a good reason? Do share.
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
March 12th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Policy
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In my last post I described a form of short hand that we docs use to communicate. One of my readers sent me a personal note via email. I thought she made some excellent points, so I’m going to post them here (with the silent conversation going on in my head when I read it typed conveniently in ALL CAPS).
The modern day pace is so incredibly stepped-up nowadays that it makes me nervous about human error. YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID. When doctors don’t have time to write complete words on paper, do they have time to give your case enough thought? PROBABLY NOT. Will some important detail slip past them? SURE. Will they make a mistake because they misread one of those code letters? NO, I DON’T THINK SO, THERE ARE PLENTY OF BETTER WAYS TO MAKE MISTAKES, LIKE GRABBING THE WRONG CHART. I should think that would be easy to do when doctors have terrible handwriting due mainly to haste. DON’T KID YOURSELF, THEIR HANDWRITING LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME WHEN THEY HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD.
All jest aside, we are in a serious quandary here… the poor primary care physicians in this country are totally swamped, they are under extreme pressure to see more patients in a day than should be legal, and in the end the patients suffer. At a certain tipping point (let’s say 12 patients/day) speed really does become inversely proportional to quality.
Instead of developing complex pay for performance measures, why not find ways to incentivize docs to see fewer patients? Truly, quality would automatically improve, patients would learn more about how to manage their chronic diseases, and docs would be happier and more productive. The quality police fail to recognize that time is the key to improving care. Can we really afford to keep up this frantic pace?
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
March 12th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Opinion
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To you Internet savvy folks out there, LOL means “laugh out loud” but to us doctors, “LOL” usually means “little old lady.” We have shorthand for everything, and our notes can look like stock tickers to the uninitiated.
For example, “NAD” means “no acute distress” (which, when translated into consumer speech, basically means that the person looks well). We shorten common words with an “x” after the first letter. So “diagnosis” becomes Dx, “treatment” becomes Tx, and “past medical history” becomes “PMHx.” Of course, there are some exceptions – “significant for” becomes s/f and “chief complaint” (or the reason why the patient believes he or she is there to see you) becomes CC. The events leading up to the chief complaint are called the “history of present illness” or HPI.
We also abbreviate the most common diseases, so that hypertension becomes HTN, diabetes mellitus is DM, heart attack is MI, and coronary artery disease is CAD. We like to use “status post” to indicate “after” something happened. And many symptoms have shorthand: DOE means “dyspnea on exertion” which is basically that you get short of breath when you walk. Or chest pain, CP. We sometimes use “?” when the patient is a poor historian (this usually indicates psychosis, dementia or severe language barrier). The pain scale is always listed as a fraction of 10. We can summarize a person’s mental status with how alert and oriented (meaning they know their name, where they are, and what the date is – they get 1 point for each of 3) they are. Vital signs (VS), such as temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate, are considered “stable” or VSS if the values are all normal. Now let’s see if you can decode these short medical notes on 2 theoretical patients in the ER:
Patient#1
CC: ?DOE
HPI: s/p long walk
PMHx no DM, CAD, HTN
PE: LOL in NAD, A&Ox2,VSS, 0/10
Dx: r/o MI
Patient #2
CC: CPx1 hr, 10/10
HPI: s/p walk
PMHx s/f DM, CAD, HTN
PE: LOL in AD
Dx: r/o MI
Now, both of these patients have the same diagnosis listed, but I can tell you that the first patient is going to wait around for many hours before she’s treated, but the second case is going to marshal the cavalry immediately.
Can you picture in your mind’s eye what patient #1 is like? A little old lady who appears physically well but is complaining of shortness of breath (we think – we’re not really sure what her main problem is as indicated by the question mark) and is a little bit disoriented. She has no major medical problems.
Now the second lady has severe chest pain that has been going on for an hour. She has all kinds of risk factors for a heart attack and appears unwell. This is worrisome, indeed.
So that’s your crash course in medical short hand. Do you think you can crack the code on your next chart review?
My next post will discuss one consumer’s fear of medical shorthand… So stay tuned!
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
February 23rd, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Opinion
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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the plight of family physicians – reimbursal for their services continues to decline, overhead steadily increases, and pressure to see a minimum of 30 patients a day can drive them to near despair. Family physicians want to provide quality care for their patients, but are exhausted by volume demands and paperwork.
If you missed this article about the primary care crisis in America in the New England Journal of Medicine, it’s an excellent read. Here are some excerpts:
Excessive demands contribute to long waiting times and inadequate quality of care for patients. A growing proportion of patients report that they cannot schedule timely appointments with their physician. Emergency departments are overflowing with patients who do not have access to primary care. The majority of patients with diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic conditions do not receive adequate clinical care, partly because half of all patients leave their office visits without having understood what the physician said.
These problems are exacerbated by the system of physician payment. Thirty minutes spent performing a diagnostic, surgical, or imaging procedure often pays three times as much as a 30-minute visit with a patient with diabetes, heart failure, headache, and depression…
These factors add up to an unsurprising result: fewer U.S. medical students are choosing careers in primary care. Between 1997 and 2005, the number of U.S. graduates entering family practice residencies dropped by 50 percent…
Who might support a national policy to rescue primary care? Employers and insurers, public and private, may reap a return on investment by fostering a more effective primary care sector that will reduce health care costs… Whoever takes up the cause of primary care, one thing is clear: action is needed to calm the brewing storm before the levees break.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal sent ripples through the blogosphere. It was about how a few family physicians found a way to drastically reduce overhead – by being a solo practitioner and using technology to replace office staff and automate billing as much as possible.
Drs. Charlie Smith and Joe Scherger are family physicians here at Revolution Health who are leading the charge towards high tech solutions for family physicians. Charlie explains his philosophy in his recent blog post:
Having practiced primary care for over 30 years, I’m convinced the model of receiving in office care for every problem is not working well. I really like the ideas espoused by Don Berwick in changing the model of care in the doctor’s office to that of seeing patients in groups, treating them by phone or by e mail, rather than in the office. Using phone calls or e mails to sort through the patient issues, the doctor can decide to see the ones who really need to come into the office and the others can be taken care of without an office visit. This is a MUCH more efficient method, allows you to take care of many more people that need care, and gets people the care when they need it, rather than forcing them to wait until they can fit into a slot in your office.
The ideal way to partner with your doctor to use the health care system in the most effective way possible is to call or e mail him whenever possible, use the internet to research all of your health conditions, and only go into the office when you require in office care, such as exams, procedures, lab tests or x rays. Become an e patient!
I personally believe that Revolution Health can substantially improve the life of family physicians through innovative technologies designed to automate their practices as much as possible (thus reducing overhead and time spent on paperwork), as well as educating patients about the management of their diseases and conditions, (thus improving outcomes and increasing pay for performance bonuses), and triaging low acuity issues through online physician emailing services and retail clinics (thus helping patients receive the care they need without excessive use of office time).
Who will take up the cause of primary care (asks the NEJM)? Revolution Health will. Let’s work together to improve the quality of life for physicians and patients alike.
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
February 18th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs
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An excellent blog post was forwarded to me for comment – an Internal Medicine physician reflects on his patients’ common underlying condition: isolationism.
Today I saw patients with the following problems:
- A person who had attempted suicide over the weekend
- A person who was possibly acutely suicidal and was abusing narcotics I was prescribing
- A person who is in an abusive relationship and has a severe eating disorder
- A terribly depressed woman in a dysfunctional marriage
- A pre-teen child whose father had suddenly died
My observation from today is that most of these people are isolated. They have difficult situations to face and the people who normally surround them are somewhat uncomfortable, not knowing what to say…
Western culture is obsessed with avoiding suffering. We entertain ourselves to avoid having to face the harsh realities of life. People die and suffer daily, and we are obsessed with the latest TV show, the latest political soapbox, or the latest self-help tool. We feel that the goal of society is to create happy and secure individuals. This is not true. The goal of society is to function as a unit in a healthy way – with the weak parts supported by the strong ones…
What I emphasized to the people I spoke with today was the need to find people who had gone through the same things. Those in the eye of the storm need to hear from people who have gotten to the other side that it is OK to feel the way they feel. Those who have gone through hard times have something huge to offer those who are going through them now – experience. You lose the pat answers when you have suffered yourself.
It is my hope that those who are struggling will find others online here at Revolution Health who can support them, and that those who have made it through to the other side will reach out to help others through our online community. Suffering is not meaningless if you harness it for good – your wounds can heal others.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
