August 4th, 2011 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Opinion, Research
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There seems to be an inverse relationship between the amount of spin one hears about “the next big thing”…and reality. First it was EMRs and virtual e-visits, then social media, and now patient portals seem poised to be next big thing. The drumbeat of vendors and pundits is unmistakable….physicians that don’t adapt will be toast. It can all sound pretty convincing until you ask to see the evidence. What do patients think?
Take the physician patient portal. If you read between the lines, patient portals are frequently being positioned as the new “front door” to physician practices. By signing on to a secure website patients will have real time access to the electronic health record and will be able to communicate with their physicians by e-mail. Additional patient features include being able to schedule an appointment with their doctor, reading their test results and refilling prescriptions. But despite these features, according to John Moore at Chilmark Research, “nationwide use of patient portals remains at a paltry 6%.”
Ok… so now we know what vendors and pundits think about patient portals. What about patients – what do they think? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
July 14th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in News, Opinion
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Patients are starting to bill doctors for making them wait, reports CNN.
“When he keeps patients waiting more than 15 minutes, Dr. Timothy Malia, a primary care physician in Fairport, New York, hands them a $5 bill. If patients in Eugene, Oregon, wait more than 10 minutes to see Dr. Pamela Wible, they receive a handmade soap or a bottle of lotion. When Dr. Cyrus Peikari, an internist in Dallas, recently had to miss a day of work because of a family emergency, he gave the patients whose appointments he canceled $50 at their next appointment.”
I’ve been kept waiting at doctors’ offices. I’ve been kept waiting as pharma reps walked past a full waiting room bearing plates of food. But I’ve also been kept waiting as doctors have handled other patients, undoubtedly more complex cases than mine.
Practice administrator and blogger Brandon Betancourt sums up the point nicely, and further extends the idea to every delay faced in life, such as toll booths on turpikes tied up with traffic.
I’ve also been squeezed into the schedule for emergency appointments, undoubtedly making someone else wait. And I’ve also been treated by phone on nights, weekends and holidays, and I’m not so sure that my primary care physician gets reimbursed for that.
So, kudos to those few physicians who respect their patients’ busy schedules enough to reward them. But I’m Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
June 29th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Humor, True Stories
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A physician friend of mine recently bragged that, while driving along a rural South Carolina road, he had stopped, chased a timber-rattler into the bushes, located said rattler, then urinated on it.
‘I wanted to say I had peed on a rattlesnake!’ He beat a hasty retreat (and I imagine a hasty zip-up) when the snake rattled and struck at the air. Who can blame Mr. Snake?
You can take the redneck to medical school, but you’ll just get a redneck with a medical degree.
Which brings me to me. I have to work on our tool-shed/work-shop in the morning. The tool-shed/work-shop is, however, over-run with red-wasps. I counted no less than ten nests inside. These are irritable, contentious creatures with no love of humanity. If they were humans, they would be Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
June 3rd, 2011 by DrWes in Health Policy, Humor
1 Comment »
From AMA Medical News:
New York physicians may have to take off their neckties, jewelry, wristwatches and long-sleeved white coats when caring for patients if a bill under consideration in the state legislature becomes law.
The bill, proposed in April in the state Senate, calls for a “hygienic dress code council” within the New York Health Dept. to consider advancing a ban on neckties and requiring physicians and other health professionals to adopt a “bare below the elbow” dress code in an effort to slash hospital-acquired infections.
Even though there’s no data that this does anything to reduce hospital acquired infections.
But that doesn’t matter.
So why stop there? I say, doctors should do the ultimate for their patients: the Full Monty.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
May 23rd, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Opinion
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“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life…
…I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it.”
—Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Wow.
This paragraph hit me between the eyes. I’ve now read it about ten times in the past 24 hours. Ms Lamott was talking about the first draft of a manuscript. Just get it down on paper, willy-nilly, free lance, she said. Let loose and enjoy yourself she goes on to advise.
But these words spoke to me about so many other things in life. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
Take the physician patient portal. If you read between the lines, patient portals are frequently being positioned as the new “front door” to physician practices. By signing on to a secure website patients will have real time access to the electronic health record and will be able to communicate with their physicians by e-mail. Additional patient features include being able to schedule an appointment with their doctor, reading their test results and refilling prescriptions. But despite these features, according to John Moore at Chilmark Research, “nationwide use of patient portals remains at a paltry 6%.”
