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Dealing With The Problem Of Hospital Readmissions For Heart Failure

“How are you feeling, Ms. Jones?”

“Fine.”

“Have you been more short of breath lately?”

“Not really, just when I exercise.”

“How much exercise?”

“I dunno. But after I go to the mailbox and walk back up to the house, I’ve got to stop now where before I didn’t.”

Exertional dyspnea. It conjures up a large differential of potential cardiovascular or pulmonary causes. And as the above commonly-encountered doctor-patient conversation demonstrates, the problem is a dynamic one: at rest things are often fine, on exertion or with recumbency less so.

Now imagine that the doctor then sees elevated neck veins, hears rales in the lower lung fields, and sees swollen ankles on their patient. Heart failure, right? Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*

Preventive Health In HD: A Video Just For Men

Check out this darkly humorous advertising campaign from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. How do you convince men to go to the doctor and get the preventive healthcare that’s known to save lives?  You make it all about television. Men + HD TV = “Yes.” This video is funny on so many levels.

*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*

I’m Your Doctor, And I’m Worth It

Rx Vending MachineI saw the note on the patient’s chart before I opened the door: “Patient is upset that he had to come in.”

I opened the door and was greeted by a gentleman with his arms crossed tightly across his chest and a stern expression. I barely recognized him, having only seen him a handful of times over the past few years. Scrawled on the patient history sheet in the space for the reason for his visit were the words, “Because I was forced to come in.”

My stomach churned. I opened his chart and looked at his problem list, which included high blood pressure and high cholesterol –- both treated with medications. He was last in my office in November — of 2008. I blinked, looked up at his scowling face, and frowned back. ”You haven’t been in the office for over 18 months. It was really time for you to come in,” I said, trying to remain calm as I spoke.

He sat for a moment, then responded with very little emotion. “I’m doing fine. You could’ve just ordered my labs and called in my prescriptions. I don’t know why I had to be seen.” Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*

Insurance Or Not, The Patients Nobody Wants To See

In the practice of medicine, as in any human endeavor, we encounter a wide variety of human beings. While thinking about this recently, in light of the passage of the healthcare reform act, I realized something startling that supporters of the bill may not realize: There are some patients that nobody wants to see.

This uncomfortable truth exists irrespective of the presence or absence of insurance. Sometimes physicians are accused of dismissing or avoiding certain patients on the basis of their finances alone. While that problem exists (and I have seen it), a great many of the patients who can’t find (or keep) a doctor simply aren’t much fun to be around, much less to treat. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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