I am smacking myself on the forehead and saying, “Why didn’t I think of this?” Dr. Richard Parker, Medical Director at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has sent out a list to his physician colleagues of 56 common medical tests and procedures. What is revolutionary is that there are prices next to each item. You non-physicians may be surprised to know that we doctors have no idea what the tests or drugs we order actually cost. Unless we get billed as a patient, we are as clueless as you are.
As I wrote before, the ostrich excuse just won’t fly any more. We all need to be aware of the cost of care and have skin in the game. Some will argue that price can’t be the only driver. I’ve heard physicians say you can’t compare one price to another because “quality” costs more. I say prove it. Read more »
An outcomes article in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery asks the question: “Are patients making high-quality decisions about breast reconstruction after mastectomy?”
The objective of the study was to “measure women’s knowledge about reconstruction and to evaluate the degree to which treatments reflected patients’ goals and preferences.” Their conclusion (bold emphasis is mine):
Women treated with mastectomy in this study were not well-informed about breast reconstruction. Treatments were associated with patients’ goals and concerns, however, and patients were highly involved in their decisions. Knowledge deficits suggest that breast cancer patients would benefit from interventions to support their decision making.
Granted the study was small, but it left me wondering if we the medical community fails to educate these women.
The study involved a cross-sectional survey of early-stage breast cancer survivors from four university medical centers. The survey included measures of knowledge about specific reconstruction facts, personal goals and concerns, and involvement in decision making. Only 84 patients participated (59 percent response rate). Participants answered only 37.9 percent of knowledge questions correctly. Read more »
You can’t be well-empowered if you hear advice wrong. That’s why in a participatory relationship, an essential skill is accurate handoff of information.
The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making (FIMDM), catchily pronounced “fimdim,” has been working for years to improve patients’ knowledge of options and alternatives. In [the September 20th] Boston Globe Liz Cooney talks with people from FIMDM about the issue. An excerpt:
What doctors explain and what patients understand might be two very different things, recent research suggests.
Ideally, patients talk with their doctors about the pros and cons of a particular treatment, weighing the risks and benefits, exploring alternatives — including doing nothing — and then come to a conclusion. That’s the goal of the informed consent process, best known by the paperwork patients sign at the end saying they heard doctors describe what they may be getting into.
A Boston non-profit, FIMDM is the force behind Gary Schwitzer’s excellent Health News Review service, which analyzes health news in the media, teaching e-patients and policy people to sift the gold from the garbage.
*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*
Today [Aug 28] I’m participating in the workshop “Engaging Minority Communities in Safer Healthcare” organized by MITSS (Medically Induced Trauma Support Services), a Boston non-profit I’ve written about before.
The current speaker is Lisa O’Connor, VP of Nursing at Boston Medical Center. She just showed this four-minute safety awareness video, produced by Quantros. Much of its content will be familiar to our readers here (the frequency of medical errors and hospital acquired infections), but I’m posting it because of its good, concrete, specific actions every patient should know.
The part with specific actions for patients starts around 2:30. (My highlights are below.) Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*
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I am smacking myself on the forehead and saying, “Why didn’t I think of this?” Dr. Richard Parker, Medical Director at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has sent out a list to his physician colleagues of 56 common medical tests and procedures. What is revolutionary is that there are prices next to each item. You non-physicians may be surprised to know that we doctors have no idea what the tests or drugs we order actually cost. Unless we get billed as a patient, we are as clueless as you are.
