KevinMD.com

Patient appointment scheduling needs flexibility

Physician

April 18, 2010

The daily appointment schedule is often a sore spot in everyone’s day:

* Patients aren’t completely satisfied because they can’t get an appointment when they want one.
* Physicians feel they’ve lost control of their day when the flow is not running smoothly and they fall behind and patients complain.
* Nurses and medical assistants are frustrated at the hodgepodge of types of appointments that get scheduled seemingly without any consideration for timing …

Prison affects how children relate to their parents

Jeffrey Knuppel, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 18, 2010

It’s an unfortunate scenario I’ve seen time and time again:

* Parent goes to prison.
* Child, who already felt neglected by parent, becomes more upset when parent ends up behind bars. Child either blames the parent for misbehavior that results in parent being taken away from child and/or blames him or herself (as children often do).
* Parent tries to have contact with child via phone calls, letters, or visits.
* Child decides …

Medical conditions as seen in the movies

Vineet Arora, MD

Potpourri

April 17, 2010

I recently went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D.

This epic creation by part genius–part disturbed director Tim Burton features the wickedly talented method actor Johnny Depp as the ‘Mad Hatter.’ As I was watching Johnny Depp’s orange hair and freakish eyes, it occurred to me that some of the most popular fiction movies over the last several years have featured some notable legends and their medical …

Diet pills can be dangerous and should be used with caution

Kristina Fiore

Medications

April 17, 2010

by Kristina Fiore

Diet pills that are adulterated with undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients can be addictive, researchers say.

In a case report, a 29-year-old female patient became addicted to Brazilian diet pills that contained unlabeled ingredients, and suffered subsequent psychiatric comorbidities, Benjamin R. Smith, BS, and Pieter A. Cohen, MD, of Harvard Medical School reported in The American Journal on Addictions.

“Given the rising prevalence of adulterated diet pills, increasing awareness among clinicians of …

Health costs are high, and here’s why

Toni Brayer, MD

Physician

April 16, 2010

Health costs are high because the body is complicated and doctors and patients hate ambiguity. The cost is high because a missed diagnosis can lead to death and a large lawsuit. The cost is high because we have many specialists that view the body in tiny pieces and want to feel 100% correct about their piece.

Let me give you a real life example.

My patient, Rick, is a brilliant attorney. He …

Read more…

Health costs are high, and here’s why

Breastfeeding rates cost the country billions

Crystal Phend

Physician

April 16, 2010

by Crystal Phend

Poor compliance with breastfeeding recommendations costs the nation at least $13 billion each year, with nearly all of the cost related to infant morbidity and mortality, according to a comprehensive economic analysis.

If 90% of new mothers followed guidelines for six months of exclusive breastfeeding for their children, an estimated 911 deaths would be prevented annually, said authors Melissa Bartick, MD, MSc, of Harvard Medical School, and Arnold Reinhold, …

ABIM: Maintenance of Certification – For the public

Chiduzie Madubata, MD

Medical Education

April 15, 2010

A guest column by the American Board of Internal Medicine, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

The debate about recertification recently in the New England Journal of Medicine and highlighted earlier this week on KevinMD.com and in an Associated Press article brings to light some of the real challenges facing the future of the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program.

I have been through …

Physicians are leaving medicine for alternative careers

Joseph Kim, MD, MPH

Physician

April 15, 2010

When physicians choose to leave clinical medicine to pursue alternative careers, what motivates them to make such changes? Is it money? More time with family? Scheduling flexibility? Avoiding litigation? To pursue new challenges? Maybe you’re getting bored with medicine.

Depending on that key motivating factor, physicians end up choosing all types of career paths. For instance, let’s take a look at some of these motivators:

Money. Let’s face it. Some physicians love …

Checklists help reduce hospital deaths

MedPage Today

Physician

April 15, 2010

by Michael Smith

The use of treatment checklists for 13 common diagnoses was associated with a dramatic reduction in patient deaths at three London hospitals, researchers said.

The year the checklists were introduced, the three facilities in the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust registered 255 fewer deaths than the previous year, according to Brian Jarman, PhD, of Imperial College London, and colleagues.

The targeted diagnoses accounted for 174 fewer deaths than the …

Read more…

Checklists help reduce hospital deaths

Primary care doctors are saying farewell

Aldebra Schroll, MD

Physician

April 14, 2010

It has been three months since I closed the door on my primary care office for the last time. It was with a heavy heart that I said goodbye to the many patients I cared for over the last six years. I am the fourth physician to leave the practice in as many years.

As the economy faltered, I found my private office practice had simply become unsustainable. With the popularity …

Rural medicine won’t be helped by health reform

Kevin

Physician

April 14, 2010

by Rick Bendinger, MD

I am a rural health provider in Abbeville, Alabama and have been here almost 30 years. I originally went to school on a public health scholarship and took the private practice option. This was a program that existed in the 1980s that paid for tuition and a stipend with the obligation to go either to a prison, rural area, or Indian reservation.

Sadly the program no longer exists. …

Patients who visit the emergency department have insurance

MedPage Today

Health Policy

April 14, 2010

by Joyce Frieden

Most patients who visit the emergency department (ED) four or more times a year have health insurance and a primary care physician, a review of the literature found.

“The uninsured represent only 15% of frequent users and are no more likely to be frequent users than they are to be occasional ED users (<4 visits/year),” Eduardo LaCalle, MD, MPH and Elaine Rabin, MD, of the Mount Sinai School of …

Patient stories on the web may not be real

Lisa Gualtieri, PhD

Patient

April 13, 2010

“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” was the caption of the famous cartoon by Peter Steiner in the July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker. The same is true of patient stories on health Web sites: nobody knows who really wrote them.

In the case of Lifestyle Lift, the company agreed to pay a $300,000 settlement last year to New York State because their patient stories were employee-generated.

Patient …

Price transparency will improve patient care

Leslie Ramirez, MD

Patient

April 13, 2010

Debora T. had a blood pressure of 180/110 during her routine visit in my internal medicine clinic. She was already on every blood pressure medication I could think of, save one — amlodipine. I prescribed the medicine and asked her to follow up in a week. I feared her blood pressure was going to cause a stroke if it went up any higher.

At our next visit, her blood pressure was …

Healthcare workers in the ER hit hard by H1N1

MedPage Today

Physician

April 13, 2010

by Michael Smith

Healthcare workers in a New York City emergency department had the highest rate of infection among employees of an urban hospital system during the first wave of the H1N1 pandemic flu, researchers said.

In a single-institution study using medical and administrative records, the adult emergency department had an H1N1 infection rate of 28.8% during April, May, and June of 2009, according to Robert Bristow, MD, and colleagues at New …

Real world meaningful use of health IT for physicians

Kevin

Health Technology

April 13, 2010

by David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA

An article in the April 10, 2010 New York Times entitled “Doctors and Patients, Lost in Paperwork,” brought attention to what may be, in the near term, the Achilles heel of the plan to incentivize doctors for the “meaningful use of EHR technology.”

The article cited a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine this past February, which asked a large cohort of physicians in …

Neosporin and other OTC drugs to avoid

Edward Pullen, MD

Medications

April 12, 2010

Most people use non-prescription medications without giving much thought to the potential side effects or problems that may be associated with their use.

Here are 5 popular OTC meds you should avoid, and better alternatives. I bet most of you use one or more of these. Neosporin, Topical Vitamin E, Afrin nasal spray (or other short acting nasal decongestant sprays), daily headache medications, and sedating antihistamines.

1. Neosporin: Neosporin in the most …

Read more…

Neosporin and other OTC drugs to avoid

Emergency departments are frequently used by young adults

Kristina Fiore

Physician

April 12, 2010

by Kristina Fiore

Twenty-somethings rely on emergency departments (EDs) for care far more than do other age groups, researchers have found.

In 2006, nearly a quarter of all young adult healthcare visits — 22.1% — took place at an ED, compared with 12.6% for children and adolescents and 8.3% for patients over 30.

That rate has significantly increased over a 10-year period, Robert J. Fortuna, MD, MPH, of the University of Rochester Medical …

iPad review for doctors: A hands on guide for medicine

Iltifat Husain, MD

Health Technology

April 12, 2010

The iPad has finally been released and we’ve got our hands on one so we can provide the medical community a healthcare perspective of the device. Here are my initial impressions.

Fits in your white coat

The iPad should fit comfortably your white coat. If you continue on to the rest of the review you’ll see pictures of the device easily settling into …

iPhone medical apps may be medical malpractice targets

Satish Misra, MD

Health Technology

April 11, 2010

Medical practice is a big business. Conservative estimates put the total cost of medical malpractice at nearly $35 billion annually and, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, nearly $5 billion is paid in claims each year. With an average claims payment of about $300,000 and up to 50% of that going to the lawyers representing the patient, its not surprising that practically every show on cable television has at …

Fits in your white coat

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts