Expand health care systems in a way that is professionally satisfying

Health Policy
March 24, 2011

You try to do the right things to sustain your business. You set high standards for delivery of quality care, follow the basic tenets of marketing, align your organization so that everyone in your firm “gets it,” avoid unnecessary expenses but identify important growth opportunities and prudently invest so that you remain competitive and serve your patients well. But can you afford investing in the assets you require to become or …

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Expand health care systems in a way that is professionally satisfying

Restricting nuclear cardiac stress testing in favor of stress echocardiography

Conditions and Diseases
March 24, 2011

Dr. William Follansbee is the chairman of the American College of Cardiology/American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ACC/ASNC) task force on non-invasive cardiac imaging and the director of nuclear cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Cardiovascular Institute.

He recently published an editorial in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in which he criticized the local Blue Cross/Blue Shield carrier, Highmark, for restricting the use of nuclear cardiac stress testing in …

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Restricting nuclear cardiac stress testing in favor of stress echocardiography

Patient volume and money instead of quality patient care

Patient
March 24, 2011

To everything there is a season and mine comes to an end today. For 720 weeks I attempted to give quality care to my patients. The task was not always easy especially when most of my patients held the unenviable position of having a high risk pregnancy and receiving Medicaid or being uninsured. Babies have a right to be born healthy …

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Patient volume and money instead of quality patient care

Engage employees in healthcare to enhance patient outcomes

Physician
March 24, 2011

It is an axiom of business that employee engagement produces many positive results, no matter what the setting—manufacturing or service.  This is true for healthcare as well.

Employee engagement produces a better product or service.  In healthcare, engaged employees produce enhanced patient outcomes.  When employees are engaged there is less turnover, which reduces training costs.  Engaged employees are problem solvers.

How …

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Engage employees in healthcare to enhance patient outcomes

Why the return on investment in an EHR is poor

Health Technology
March 23, 2011

I had a déjà vu experience recently when I visited a medical practice that was like so many others I’ve been to before.

This practice just wasn’t getting their investment back from their EHR.

The practice had been live on the EHR for about five months and was functioning effectively without pulling charts for patient visits. The clinical staff was comfortable with the …

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Why the return on investment in an EHR is poor

How a patient support tool works to help patients and doctors

Health Technology
March 23, 2011

When you go to see the doctor, how do they know (a) if you are due for any preventive health screenings like mammography or (b) if you have a chronic condition, if it is being monitored and managed?

And actually, not just if it is being monitored or managed, but are you able to achieve your life goals with good health? And what about …

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How a patient support tool works to help patients and doctors

How your EHR can help with physician recruiting

Health Technology
March 23, 2011

by John Rossheim

What’s the latest tool for recruiting the best clinicians to your hospital? Is it the professional pride of being associated with an organization that provides the best care in the region? Is it showing respect for the growing number of clinicians who seek to work hard but protect their personal lives from excessive intrusions in the form of frequent on-call duty or mandatory …

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How your EHR can help with physician recruiting

Cannabis use and medicine, the debate over benefits and harms

Medications
March 22, 2011

An excerpt from Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke: Its Ethnobotany as Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine.

by Marcello Pennacchio, PhD

Few plants have generated as much debate and controversy as cannabis (Cannabis sativa).

Throughout the ages, it has been labelled both a dangerous drug and potent medicine. Where the former is concerned, law-enforcement agents and governments spend millions …

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Cannabis use and medicine, the debate over benefits and harms

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What to do with a prescription bottle with the wrong pills inside

Medications
March 22, 2011

Have you ever opened a prescription bottle to find the wrong pills inside? If so, you may have found it to be an expensive mistake.

Whatever the reason for the error (and there are numerous possible causes), here is how to best handle the situation.

Of course, it is always smart to confirm the medications, quantities and dosages at the pharmacy checkout.  A mistake recognized at the time of purchase can be easily …

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What to do with a prescription bottle with the wrong pills inside

Accountable care organizations: The lost art of medicine?

Health Policy
March 22, 2011

by Sharolyn Rhees Medina, MD

It’s no secret that healthcare’s inevitable move toward accountable care organizations (ACOs) has many physicians feeling a bit …nervous. Admittedly, most physicians are creatures of habit who fiercely defend their individual approach to patient care, focus on cures not cost, and dread the concept of “cookbook medicine.”

And under the ACO model, physicians …

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Accountable care organizations: The lost art of medicine?

Doctors should ask the people what they want for health care

Patient
March 22, 2011

Americans typically rely on elected officials to uphold the will of the people. Now physicians—traditionally confined to exam rooms—are taking direct action to fulfill community needs.

In 2004 I decided to meet face to face with citizens in my hometown. I thought, “Why wait for legislation? I’m a board-certified physician. What’s stopping me from serving the public?”

So I led town hall meetings and invited ordinary citizens to create the clinic of …

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Doctors should ask the people what they want for health care

A surgeon on those who understand murderers, rapists and child molesters

Physician
March 21, 2011

(Editor’s note: reader discretion advised)

Recently I was involved in a discussion with a guy that was explaining how we should understand criminals. The emphasis was on farm murders but we touched on murderers in general, rapists and child molesters. My point of view was that I did not understand them and felt that he was justifying their actions. In the end I was informed that I was smug. Apparently that …

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A surgeon on those who understand murderers, rapists and child molesters

Family physicians who care for underserved patients

Physician
March 21, 2011

One of the ugliest incidents in my career occurred during my faculty development fellowship year, when I spent two days each week seeing patients at several federally qualified community health centers in inner city Washington, DC. Midway through the year, I was transferred from a health center that served an African-American population to one serving a mostly Spanish-speaking clientele.

Nearly all of the permanent Read more…

Family physicians who care for underserved patients

How obesity is like alcoholism

Conditions and Diseases
March 21, 2011

Recently, I attended a scientific symposium on addictions.

One of the books I picked up at that conference, and read on my flight to Montreal, is A. J. Adams’ Undrunk: A Skeptic’s Guide to AA.

While this book is a very quick and highly readable introduction to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), about which I knew very little, today’s post is not about this book.

The definition reads as follows:

Alcoholism is a primary chronic disease …

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How obesity is like alcoholism

Prostate cancer from a patient perspective

Conditions and Diseases
March 21, 2011

by Dan Zenka

As a patient, I feel for anyone who is given a diagnosis of prostate cancer.  Hearing the “Big-C” word can be upsetting enough. But the complexity of the disease—diagnosing it, trying to characterize it and selecting the appropriate treatment—can feel like insult upon injury.  We need to talk about prostate cancers. With 24 known sub-types of this cancer—from …

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Prostate cancer from a patient perspective

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