What would you rather know when undergoing a surgical procedure: What are your most likely complications during the proposed surgery based on your own personal characteristics, or all of the potential complications that could arise with your upcoming surgical procedure?
Several major medical centers are betting you’d like to know your tailored personal risks. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
I’m always fascinated by the complaints that the emergency department is so overused and expensive. I admit that it is used a lot, and that care can seem expensive. But I want to make it clear that the reasons are myriad.
Whenever we in the specialty say that we feel that patients abuse our services, someone in academia reminds us that only a small number of those patients do not actually have serious illnesses. Whether or not that’s true, one of the reasons we are overused is due to none other than other physicians.
I’ve been paying attention lately to the way physician referral patterns happen. I suspect it’s the same in other facilities. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog says that cancer lab tests “aren’t always right.” They report on reports issued by two professional societies that point out that as many as 20% of a certain kind of test are inaccurate. According to the Health Blog the problem is the tests “aren’t black and white, and rely on a pathologist’s judgment.”
Now, judgment is a critical factor in most everything in medicine, but perhaps nowhere else are the consequences of incorrect judgment so serious as in pathology. As Dr. William Osler famously observed: “As is your pathology, so goes your clinical practice.” But how widespread is this problem? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
Today, in a bold and not too distant place, 300 individuals who are at high risk for multiple health problems predictive of high mortality rates, are participating in a visionary experimental project for telemedicine and health monitoring.
Every day these individuals are tracked through GPS location. Their movement patterns and whereabouts easily can be observed by trained technicians who ascertain that the individuals are getting up and going about their daily activities in a normal fashion. Deviations in movements for any expected individual can be the earliest indicator that something has gone seriously wrong and might warrant an investigatory call or visit to look into a developing heath problem.
Read more »
Hospitals today are aggressively buying physician practices in their local markets. Why? Hospitals want to solidify their referral base for inpatient and outpatient referrals as well as increase their negotiating power with insurance companies.
Over 50% of physician practices are now owned by hospitals according to the Medical Group Management Association. As such, many one-time private practitioners are now hospital employees.
Having done physician recruitment in a prior life, I know that before buying a practice that hospitals look at a variety of things including the practice’s patient volume, number of hospital referrals, estimates of patient turnover, and so on. One of the things we did not consider years ago in evaluating and buying a physician practice was the quality of the physician’s patient communication skills and supporting practices. I doubt that things have changed much since. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
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