Patient voices

1,315 articles · Since 2005

Articles, page 37

A day in the life of a hospice professional

October 3, 2011Oct 3, 20115

I know of few students who aspire to serve in end of life care. I sure didn’t. If anyone had told me that I would spend the first decade of my professional life serving the dying and their families as well as thinking, writing and talking about death and I dying, I would have thought that person to be morbid, strange, and sad. Most of society does not think …

Forget the mommy wars, offer support instead

Melissa Arca, MD

October 2, 2011Oct 2, 20112

I was just thinking the other day how much I need my mom friends. The ones I'm fortunate enough to have in real life and the ones (you) who come here, read, offer support, share your stories, and commiserate at…

I was just thinking the other day how much I need my mom friends. The ones I’m fortunate enough to have in real life and the ones (you) who come here, read, offer support, share your stories, and commiserate at times.

All of you moms are incredibly important to me. It doesn’t matter to me whether you’ve breastfed or bottle fed, whether you are a champion of sleep training or prefer co-sleeping, …

Patients have a part to play in their own medical care

Sharon Bahrych, PA-C, MPH

October 2, 2011Oct 2, 20117

Medicine has changed so much over the past years, I look back even to when I finished my program and in the mere 20 years since I finished, medicine has changed dramatically. I can remember when I was a student, seeing a patient with rheumatoid arthritis and advising her that the best treatment we could give her was a DMARD. Now we have multiple monoclonal antibodies that not only …

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7 ways to make patients like you

Neil Baum, MD

October 2, 2011Oct 2, 20116

Patients want to be cared for by doctors who show an interest in them as individuals. It has been a well-known statistic that the average doctor interrupts a patient within 16 seconds after the doctor-patient interview begins. You know full well that few patients can learn to develop an emotional attachment in 16 seconds. This article will discuss 7 steps to develop rapport that will make patients like you, will make them …

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7 ways to make patients like you

Sometimes cyber-medicine is fraught with danger

Stewart Segal, MD

October 2, 2011Oct 2, 20112

I’m worried about the future. Everyone I know is stressed. Patients fail to follow up as directed. They fail to take their medications as directed. They have too much to do. Their priority lists are in shambles. With all the…

With all the responsibilities that today’s multitasking society thrust on my patients, they don’t even have the time to pick up the phone and call each other; instead, they text, IM, SMS, and email. …

10 reasons why you need to change doctors

Dominic A. Carone, PhD

October 1, 2011Oct 1, 20115

As a patient care provider and someone who is occasionally a patient myself, I am going provide some suggestions on ways to know when it is time to consider seeking a second opinion or time to seek a new health…

The number one reason to seek a new healthcare provider is when the treatment you are receiving is not working.

…

Health care consumers require a crash course on bargaining

Daniela Carusi, MD

October 1, 2011Oct 1, 20113

A friend of mine recently took an exotic trip. While shopping in a market, she picked up an appealing item and asked the seller what it cost. She was given a price that seemed high, and paused to consider whether the impulse seemed justified. The shopkeeper grew confused in the silence. Finally he asked my friend, “Don’t you want to know if I can do better?”

Clearly this person was outside …

The empowered patient is a relief for physician practice

Jeffrey Gladd, MD

September 30, 2011Sep 30, 201110

Patients may soon be universally able to view their lab results thanks to a new rule proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services. This means patients may access without permission or release by their providers. This is a…

Classically patients do not see their lab results. The busy primary doctors are often left with nothing more than …

America’s broken disability system

Edwin Leap, MD

September 29, 2011Sep 29, 201127

I once asked a man in his 30’s why he was on disability. He had fallen attempting to ford a swift stream while fishing. He replied: "Well, the judge said I have a bad attitude, I don’t like people and…

I once asked a man in his 30’s why he was on disability. He had fallen attempting to ford a swift stream while fishing. He replied: “Well, the judge said I have a bad attitude, I don’t like people and I can’t hold a job.” Shocking as it sounds, it wasn’t very different from other reasons I’ve heard. “I don’t remember, my Dad put me on it.” “I have anxiety.” …

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America’s broken disability system

Lethal injections are not good medicine

Katherine Ellington

September 29, 2011Sep 29, 201123

Recently, two executions by lethal injections were carried out in America. One ended the life of Troy Davis in Georgia, the other with too much hate Lawrence Russell Brewer in Texas. Death and dying offer complexity and complications in the profession medicine bound by policies, mandates and laws driven by internal (e.g. professional associations, medical boards) and external (e.g. federal, state, medical center) forces.

Lethal injections involve delivering a fatal dose …

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Lethal injections are not good medicine

Patients generally seek attorneys out of anger rather than greed

Jessica Scott, MD, JD

September 28, 2011Sep 28, 20118

Patients often pursue litigation simply to obtain information that has not been forthcoming. Research shows that the three things patients want most in the face of medical error are: information about what happened; a sincere apology; and measures to prevent the error from happening to someone else. Financial compensation is lower on the list. Patients generally seek attorneys out of anger rather than greed. When unanticipated adverse outcomes occur, error …

A bride who wants to register at the Mayo Clinic

Meredith Gould, PhD

September 28, 2011Sep 28, 20116

I’m getting married in November and am not "registered" anywhere. Doing so hadn’t even occurred to me until people started asking, "where are you registered?" At first, I simply laughed. Dan and I have enough for two households. Now I’m…

I’m getting married in November and am not “registered” anywhere. Doing so hadn’t even occurred to me until people started asking, “where are you registered?”

At first, I simply laughed. Dan and I have enough for two households. Now I’m re-thinking the bridal registry thing.

Here comes the under-insured, chronically-ill bride going on two years without primary medical care … and I want to register at the Mayo Clinic.

My bridal registry wish list …

It is not easy being a patient-consumer, but it can be done

Jeffrey Rice, MD, JD

September 28, 2011Sep 28, 20118

I would like to share a story about my son’s recent surgery that, while only one simple case, reveals the foundational problem with the U.S. health care system. I write this story as a father of a 12 year old…

I would like to share a story about my son’s recent surgery that, while only one simple case, reveals the foundational problem with the U.S. health care system.

I write this story as a father of a 12 year old boy who has cerebral palsy. Jack is fortunate to be healthy and active with minor medical needs. As he has grown he experienced some issues with contractures in his right lower …

Learning the hard way that there is an art to medicine

Tracy Krulik

September 27, 2011Sep 27, 20112

In med school budding doctors are told: "When you hear hoof beats, think horse." The problem is that sometimes when you hear hoof beats, it’s a zebra, and when that "zebra" is a disease, your patient leaves your office misdiagnosed.…

In med school budding doctors are told: “When you hear hoof beats, think horse.” The problem is that sometimes when you hear hoof beats, it’s a zebra, and when that “zebra” is a disease, your patient leaves your office misdiagnosed. I’m that patient.

In 1998 I had my first abdominal attack. I vomited for days and walked hunched over like a frail octogenarian. (For reference, I was extremely fit and twenty-seven …

Doctors can help patients make informed decisions and prevent overtreatment

Davis Liu, MD

September 26, 2011Sep 26, 2011

There are many tips to saving money on medical costs like asking your doctor only for generic medications, choosing an insurance plan with a high deductible and lower monthly premiums, going to an urgent care or retail clinic rather than…

How about getting your old medical records and having them reviewed by a primary care doctor? It …

My good intentions had helped start a reaction

Jordan Grumet, MD

September 25, 2011Sep 25, 2011

If death was the end zone, George had been on the one yard line twice in the last five years. And I, as part of his team of doctors, watched as he stubbornly maintained his goal line stand. Miracles rarely…

Yesterday as George glided into my office you would have never known that eternity’s grip had been …

Ivan Ilyich gives voice to the agony of the afflicted

Richard Barager, MD

September 22, 2011Sep 22, 20113

Pity me as I wish to be pitied. That is the plea of the tortured protagonist in Leo Tolstoy’s brilliant 1886 novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Tolstoy was born in 1828 into Czarist Russia’s landed gentry. Though orphaned at…

Pity me as I wish to be pitied. That is the plea of the tortured protagonist in Leo Tolstoy’s brilliant 1886 novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

Tolstoy was born in 1828 into Czarist Russia’s landed gentry. Though orphaned at a young age, he enjoyed the typical privileges wealth and title afforded—passive income, summers in the country, and enrollment at Kazan University. But it was later, after dropping out of school and …

Interactions about our health care are increasingly conducted online

Jessie Gruman, PhD

September 22, 2011Sep 22, 2011

The outsourcing of work by businesses to the cheapest available workers has received a lot of attention in recent years. It has largely escaped notice, however, that the new labor force isn’t necessarily located in Southeast Asia, but is often found here at home and is virtually free. It is us, using our laptops and smart phones to perform more and more functions once carried out by knowledgeable salespeople and …

The online health information divide

Susannah Fox

September 22, 2011Sep 22, 20112

This post is first and foremost a thank-you note. Thank you to everyone who posted a comment, emailed me, or tweeted a suggestion in response to my request for input last July: Crowdsourcing a Survey. Six new topics came directly…

This post is first and foremost a thank-you note.

Thank you to everyone who posted a comment, emailed me, or tweeted a suggestion in response to my request for input last July: Crowdsourcing a Survey. Six new topics came directly from those conversations. Thank you to Veenu Aulakh and the California HealthCare Foundation who provided funding for the survey. Thank you to Lee …

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The online health information divide

Why doctors and patients have turned against each other

Hans Duvefelt, MD

September 22, 2011Sep 22, 201141

“Where there is love of humanity there will be love of the profession.” -Hippocrates Reading some of the blog posts and comments on the Internet, you might get the impression that a majority of American doctors hate their jobs. Actually,…

“Where there is love of humanity there will be love of the profession.”
-Hippocrates

Reading some of the blog posts and comments on the Internet, you might get the impression that a majority of American doctors hate their jobs. Actually, according Family Practice News, only 35% of my colleagues are unsatisfied with their careers, but that is still a remarkable number.

Are Hippocrates’ words implying an answer to why some doctors today don’t …

Patient voices

Articles, page 37

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