September 26th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
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The “empowered patient” movement (which I think is a good thing) strives to take the doctor out of the center of care and put the patient at its focus. The role of doctor is not to be the star of the show, the quarterback, the superhero, but the advocate and helper for the patient to accomplish their goal: Health.
Many rightly attack doctor prima donnas who want the exam/operating room to be about them instead of the patient. This is health care, not health performance. They want doctors who care more about the people they treat than they do about money, praise, or status.
I get it. I get the message that doctors have to adjust to this new age of patient empowerment and patient-centeredness. I get the fact that making patients wait is a bad thing, and that communication is as essential of a skill as is medical knowledge — remove either one of them and you don’t have care. I hear the message: Doctors should care about patients more than they care about themselves. That is what we are paid to do, and that is what we have neglected at our own peril. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
August 11th, 2010 by admin in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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By John Henning Schumann, M.D.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka “Health Care Reform”) signed by President Obama in March will revolutionize primary care in the United States. By 2014 tens of millions of uninsured people will “enter” the system by being granted insurance, either through expansion of the Medicaid program or through mandated purchasing of insurance via state pools or the private market.
This alone will have a profound impact, straining the capacity of our already frayed system. Therefore, embedded in the law are funds to encourage growth and improvement in primary care: Incentives to encourage graduates to enter primary care fields (family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics) and practice in underserved areas (through scholarships and loan forgiveness), and money to re-format the way that primary care is practiced and paid for. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
August 10th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Dr. Wes (a cardiology blogger whom all should read) wrote a very compelling post about technology and the bondage it can create for doctors:
The devaluation of doctors’ time continues unabated.
As we move into our new era of health care delivery with millions more needing physician time (and other health care provider’s time, for that matter) –- we’re seeing a powerful force emerge –- a subtle marketing of limitless physician availability facilitated by the advance of the electronic medical record, social media, and smartphones.
Doctors, you see, must be always present, always available, always giving.
These sound like dire words, but the degree to which it has resonated around the Web among doctors is telling. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
July 28th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Research
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While the “patient-centered medical home” may be a good idea, it needs a better name. It sounds like a hospice, reports surgeon and columnist Pauline Chen, M.D. She outlines the initial experiences of practices making the transition to the new practice model.
One problem uncovered by pilot projects is that doctors in transition to the practice model have to spend inordinate amounts of time of things other than patients. And while the patients want and welcome the changes, they face a learning curve too, as they move from seeing just the doctor to working with a team of providers for their care.
Physicians suggested using resources from the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, a collaborative group set up to help offices make the transition. (New York Times)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
July 15th, 2010 by David H. Gorski, M.D., Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research, True Stories
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There’s been a bit of buzz in the health blogs over President Obama’s decision last week to use the mechanism of a recess appointment to be the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Recess appointments, for those who may not be aware, allow a President to put a nominee in place when Congress is in recess in order to have him in place without the messy process of having him approved by the Senate. True, the Senate still has to approve a recess appointment by the end of its term, or the seat goes vacant again, but it’s an excellent way to avoid having nasty confirmation fights during election years. Of course, both parties do it, and the reaction of pundits, bloggers, and politicians tend to fall strictly along partisan lines.
If you support the President, then a recess appointment is a way to get around the obstructionism of the other party. If you don’t support the President, it’s a horrific abuse of Presidential power. And so it goes. Either way, I don’t really care much about the politics of how such officials are appointed so much as who is being appointed.
The man who was appointed last week to head CMS is Donald Berwick, M.D., CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. His being placed in charge of CMS will likely have profound consequences not just for how the recent health care/insurance reform law is implemented, but for how the government applies science-based medicine to the administration of the this massive bill. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
