Patient voices

1,301 articles · Since 2005

Articles, page 61

10 ways patients can save on health care costs

December 22, 2009Dec 22, 20092

It’s beginning to look like health care consumers are going to have to take lowering health care into their own hands since no answers are coming down from above. Here are ten tips for lowering your costs. One, encourage your…

It’s beginning to look like health care consumers are going to have to take lowering health care into their own hands since no answers are coming down from above.

Here are ten tips for lowering your costs.

One, encourage your employer to offer a health savings account with a high deductible. Encourage the employer to pay half the deductible. Your premiums will be much lower, and your employer will save up to …

How doctors can show respect to patients

Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD

December 18, 2009Dec 18, 200917

"Angelina Gomez," the medical assistant hollers out to the crowded waiting room. As always, I cringe when I hear this. It sounds so harsh, so cattle-like. I know that the assistant is actually a gentle and caring person, and I…

“Angelina Gomez,” the medical assistant hollers out to the crowded waiting room. As always, I cringe when I hear this. It sounds so harsh, so cattle-like. I know that the assistant is actually a gentle and caring person, and I understand that he uses a loud voice so that he can be heard over the general din of a large waiting room.

Nevertheless it feels horrible to me, so demeaning, like …

Patients using internet health information without physician guidance

Kevin

December 16, 2009Dec 16, 20096

The advent of the internet, combined with social media, has made everyone experts and has increased the disdain for authority. No where is that more apparent than the firestorm that surrounds vaccines and its detractors. The Los Angeles Times' James…

The advent of the internet, combined with social media, has made everyone experts and has increased the disdain for authority.

No where is that more apparent than the firestorm that surrounds vaccines and its detractors.

The Los Angeles Times’ James Rainey writes a column on the phenomenon, observing the backlash against a well-written, nuanced piece debunking the link between vaccines and autism.

But as we know, those who already believe there is a …

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How doctors can stay up to date with current medical information

MedPage Today

December 14, 2009Dec 14, 20095

Originally published in MedPage Today by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer With the amount of research being published in medical journals and presented at meetings, it should not be surprising when a new finding slips by a busy physician.…

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer

With the amount of research being published in medical journals and presented at meetings, it should not be surprising when a new finding slips by a busy physician.

Nor should it be surprising, then, that some decisions about patient care might be made without benefit of the most recent evidence.

Although experts …

Poll: How to control costs in end of life, or terminal, care

Kevin

December 14, 2009Dec 14, 20095

It's estimated that up to 30 percent of the 50 billion dollars Medicare spends on end of life care has no meaningful impact on patients. Is there a rational way to control costs when it comes to terminal care? Most…

It’s estimated that up to 30 percent of the 50 billion dollars Medicare spends on end of life care has no meaningful impact on patients.

Is there a rational way to control costs when it comes to terminal care?

Most patients want to spend their last days at home, but 75 percent die in either a hospital or nursing home. Almost 20 percent of terminal patients end up in intensive care settings.

Worse, …

Doctors need to take care of themselves, for their patients’ sake

Nancy Rappaport, MD

December 11, 2009Dec 11, 2009

In order to be truly effective in our work, we physicians need to conduct our own personal exploration, take time for introspection, and replenish our personal reserves. Part of our job is to balance the demands of our work (be they finding a cure for cancer, caring for terminally ill patients, solving the problems of healthcare or delivering twins—whatever our calling may be) with caring for ourselves. This involves both …

How to talk with your family about end of life care

Kevin

November 26, 2009Nov 26, 20095

Like last year, I'm participating in the Engage with Grace blog rally. I'll be signing off until Monday. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Last Thanksgiving weekend, many of us bloggers participated in the first documented “blog rally” to promote Engage…

Like last year, I’m participating in the Engage with Grace blog rally. I’ll be signing off until Monday. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Last Thanksgiving weekend, many of us bloggers participated in the first documented “blog rally” to promote Engage With Grace – a movement aimed at having all of us understand and communicate our end-of-life wishes.

It was a great success, with over 100 bloggers in the healthcare …

Patients should be careful when doing online health information research

Kevin

November 23, 2009Nov 23, 2009

With the majority of American patients using the internet to research their health, it's essential that they be guided to reputable sources of information. Better Health's Val Jones, in a recent presentation at the e-Patient Connections 2009 Conference, starkly framed…

With the majority of American patients using the internet to research their health, it’s essential that they be guided to reputable sources of information.

Better Health’s Val Jones, in a recent presentation at the e-Patient Connections 2009 Conference, starkly framed the problem in a creative limerick, presented Pecha Kucha-style.

Patients should be careful when doing online health information research

Discharged from the hospital without answers; the death of Jane Q. Patient

Dan Walter

November 20, 2009Nov 20, 200961

We found out that her real name was Cindy Chapman, and that she died alone and afraid. Cindy was a paralegal, an activist and a fighter of lost causes who lived in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was part of an online…

We found out that her real name was Cindy Chapman, and that she died alone and afraid.

Cindy was a paralegal, an activist and a fighter of lost causes who lived in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was part of an online community called RATEMDs, where she had many soul mates. Her posts on health care were funny and cynical and wise. Her screen name was Jane Q. Patient.

My wife, Pam, was especially …

Are older nurses being forced out of the profession?

Colleen O'Leary, RN, MS

November 20, 2009Nov 20, 200913

Originally published in HCPLive.com by Colleen O'Leary, RN, MSN, AOCNS Last time I talked about how I had never really experienced the concept of nurses eating their young in action. However, I have seen the opposite begin to evolve. I…

Originally published in HCPLive.com

by Colleen O’Leary, RN, MSN, AOCNS

Last time I talked about how I had never really experienced the concept of nurses eating their young in action.

However, I have seen the opposite begin to evolve. I see this as a bigger issue in nursing these days. The “putting out to pasture” of seasoned, experienced nurses is happening more often …

Learn how to conduct a family meeting by using a structured approach

Alex Smith, MD

November 16, 2009Nov 16, 2009

On my last day of ward attending, I handed out an EKG that resembled the Dow Jones industrial average over the last 10 years (not pictured). The normal pattern of an EKG was completely disrupted: ST segments were markedly elevated, P waves were hidden, and beats were grouped in odd patterns. My medical team laughed and shook their heads.

I asked why.

A brave intern responded that he was completely at a …

The decision not to test is often the more difficult choice

Kevin

November 12, 2009Nov 12, 20099

Ordering that head CT scan is the easy way out. In a piece from Newsweek (via Bryan Vartabedian), Yale emergency physician Christopher Moore details a common scenario: should he order a CT scan in an asymptomatic 15-year old who was…

Ordering that head CT scan is the easy way out.

In a piece from Newsweek (via Bryan Vartabedian), Yale emergency physician Christopher Moore details a common scenario: should he order a CT scan in an asymptomatic 15-year old who was hit in the back of the head while playing soccer?

Dr. Moore encapsulates his thought process: “In a case like this, evidence shows the chance of a life-threatening injury is vanishingly small. …

How getting a viral infection can be beautiful

Kevin

November 5, 2009Nov 5, 2009

If getting sick weren't so miserable, I'm sure more can appreciate the beauty of this video. MedGadget points us to this NPR piece featuring Xvivo, a company that produces impressive medical and scientific animations. This one shows us how viruses…

If getting sick weren’t so miserable, I’m sure more can appreciate the beauty of this video.

MedGadget points us to this NPR piece featuring Xvivo, a company that produces impressive medical and scientific animations. This one shows us how viruses infect cells and reproduce themselves.

Enjoy.

How getting a viral infection can be beautiful

Interruptions when doctors see patients and how that affects care

Kevin

October 20, 2009Oct 20, 20094

Getting interrupted while in the doctor's office can be annoying, both for the patient and physician. In an essay in The New York Times, pediatrician Rahul Parikh notes that, in an average primary care office visit, doctors were interrupted twice.…

Getting interrupted while in the doctor’s office can be annoying, both for the patient and physician.

In an essay in The New York Times, pediatrician Rahul Parikh notes that, in an average primary care office visit, doctors were interrupted twice. And in the ER, “emergency room doctors experienced an average of 10 interruptions an hour, compared with 4 an hour for primary care doctors.”

Having a computer in the room, …

How should doctors handle the difficult patient?

Toni Brayer, MD

October 4, 2009Oct 4, 200924

I am willing to bet that patients do not know that the medical community talks formally about "The Difficult Patient". Courses are taught on how to handle these patients and there is even an ethics study on Medscape about it.…

I am willing to bet that patients do not know that the medical community talks formally about “The Difficult Patient”. Courses are taught on how to handle these patients and there is even an ethics study on Medscape about it. So what is the difficult patient?

Every practice encounters them and they come in many varieties. They are the patients who abuse the staff, miss appointments repeatedly, “lose” their prescriptions for …

How to reduce the risk of medical errors from patient hand-offs

Kevin

September 25, 2009Sep 25, 20096

One of the consequences of capping resident work-hours is increasing the frequency of patient hand-offs. In a recent column in The New York Times, surgeon Pauline Chen cites a somewhat frightening statistic that during a course of a typical 5-day…

One of the consequences of capping resident work-hours is increasing the frequency of patient hand-offs.

In a recent column in The New York Times, surgeon Pauline Chen cites a somewhat frightening statistic that during a course of a typical 5-day hospitalization, patients “are passed between doctors an average of 15 times.”

And residents sign over patients several hundred times during the first few weeks of training.

One interesting solution would be to …

Should homebirth advocates continue support a doctor convicted of sexual exploitation?

Kevin

September 22, 2009Sep 22, 200923

Amy Tuteur calls sexual exploitation "the most egregious violation of professional conduct that any obstetrician-gynecologist can commit." And in that context, she details an interesting scenario brewing in California. Stuart Fischbein is an obstetrician that's widely hailed in homebirth circles,…

Amy Tuteur calls sexual exploitation “the most egregious violation of professional conduct that any obstetrician-gynecologist can commit.”

And in that context, she details an interesting scenario brewing in California. Stuart Fischbein is an obstetrician that’s widely hailed in homebirth circles, writing a book and being a foremost advocate of homebirths.

Unfortunately for him, he also exercised some poor judgment, as detailed in this newspaper report:

He called her “sweet pea,” held

…

How eliminating waste and taking fewer steps can improve patient care

Donald Tex Bryant

September 21, 2009Sep 21, 20094

Recently I was on a canoe trip in Ontario, Canada with a close friend. As he and I were portaging our gear and canoe between two lakes I was thinking that the uphill path was difficult and wondered how many…

I often find myself counting steps during my daily activities as I know that the fewer physical steps it …

Is an efficient physician necessarily a good doctor?

Amy Tuteur, MD

September 19, 2009Sep 19, 200915

What makes a good doctor? There are two important characteristics. The first is clinical skill: the ability to find a pattern in the patient's signs and symptoms, the ability to identify the pattern, and the judicious use of medical tests…

What makes a good doctor?

There are two important characteristics. The first is clinical skill: the ability to find a pattern in the patient’s signs and symptoms, the ability to identify the pattern, and the judicious use of medical tests to fill in the blanks of the pattern. The second characteristic is compassion: the ability to care about the patient and empathize with his or her situation.

Many doctors have one or …

Is the obesity epidemic caused by too much exercise?

Monte Ladner, MD

September 18, 2009Sep 18, 20096

The August 17, 2009 issue of TIME magazine ran a cover story entitled “The Myth About Exercise” with a subtitle claiming it won’t make you lose weight. The author of the article cherry picked bits of data from several scientific studies to make the case that exercise won’t help with weight loss, and might even lead to weight gain by causing people to eat more.

The TIME article cites a …

Patient voices

Articles, page 61

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