Called "payment by cuts" bonuses:
New pay structures for chief executives and senior managers earning £110,000 mean that their annual pay rises and performance bonuses will depend on their NHS organisations hitting financial goals.
But if they miss targets they will not receive a salary increase at all, prompting fears that managers will cut patient services to safeguard their earnings while making nurses and doctors redundant.
The Economist discusses this question:
But human kidneys are no ordinary commodity. Trading them is banned in most countries. So supply depends largely on the charity of individuals: some are willing to donate one of their healthy kidneys while they are still alive (at very little risk to their health); others agree to let their kidneys be used when they die. Unsurprisingly, with altruism the only incentive, not enough ...
He's preparing for a deposition, and writes about our lawsuit culture which unfairly penalizes good doctors in many cases.
With insurers paying more for procedures, physicians are imposing "mandatory" diagnostic tests to pay the bills.
Another example of how physicians get blamed for bad outcomes out of their control.
Medicare can spend $19 billion less on end-of-life care and still achieve the same results.
Hilary Clinton states that health care reform is a bad dream for some:
So I wonder who Hillary was talking about when she said her ideas about health care may be a bad dream for some. Quite obviously husband Bill would have bad dreams about it. I imagine my doctor would too. Presumably Democrats in general would lose sleep worrying about the possible ramifications. Wealthy Canadians seeking higher quality care ...
Frivolous lawsuits happen in Russia as well:
"In October 2005, as a result of an examination by a gastroenterologist, she was diagnosed with a chronic condition whose main symptom is heart burn," her lawyer, Alexey Monakhov, said.
In a landmark ruling, two Russian courts agreed that Coca Cola had failed to warn of the potential health risks of drinking too much Coke and awarded Miss Kashuba £62.
I'm not surprised, coming from this company who cares only for profits:
One broker who pitched the health plan implied to the woman that it would be stupid not to sign up.
When asked if he would leave written details of the plan so the woman could read it, he replied, "No ma'am. This is mine. I only have one. I had to take the time to go online ...
The investigative reporters go dumpster-searching:
Local 2 investigates spent three months checking pharmacy Dumpsters across the Houston area. We checked 90 Walgreens and CVS Dumpsters, plus a handful of smaller pharmacies.
It didn't take much digging to find loads of personal information. We found it all in clear bags and in clear view. All of the bags were inside unlocked Dumpsters.
We found prescription labels, pill bottles and ...
They continue to pour in:
A law firm in Massachusetts has sent us 7000 complaints, with individual patient identifiers, for one of our psycho-active drugs. Since each patient is named, that means we have to create a case in our safety database for each one. They are overwhelmingly described as having an unspecified illness, so these cases don't get reported anywhere, unless the patient has died. There's a handful ...
Apparently she wasn't discreet enough for the airline.
A cultural phenomenon in Japan, leading to depression in women:
Women brought up during the 50s and 60s - the baby-boomer generation - are sometimes seen as a commodity by their husbands, someone to do the housework and look after the children.
Their husbands may be "salarymen" or white collar workers, who leave home in the early hours, and return merely to sleep.
These couples can gradually ...
Many doctors find computers and typing time-consuming. Which is one reason why EHRs are so slow to catch on:
Basically it takes a doctor less than 5 minutes to find out whats wrong with the patient and now he goes to the computer and is transformed into a white coat wearing secretary who has to spend more that 20 minutes doing clerical busy work. Patients build up, ...
Comments on the recent study suggesting that angioplasty is ineffective if performed days after a heart attack. Sometimes the evidence contradicts intuitive thinking:
The new report is the latest example of a rigorous experiment turning medical practice on its head by proving that a widely accepted treatment is not the great boon it was thought to be (except maybe to the bank accounts of doctors, drug companies and ...
Scary thought, since anonymous patients can say anything about you - whether it's true or not. (via Notes from Dr. RW)
TBTAM suggests Wyeth is hurting the fight against bio-identical quackery:
The fact that Wyeth appears to be leading the charge against Suzie and her anti-aging consituents is unfortunate. Wyeth's involvement only serves as a lightening rod that distracts from the real issues and hurts the credibility of those in the medical establishment who want to see the FDA regulate the multi-billion dollar anti-aging and compounding pharmaceutical industries. These folks ...
Their record so far is 7 wins, 4 losses.
They're joining the chorus of doctors upset with her quackery.
Slim and none:
Unless the outgoing Republicans can use the lame-duck session to find the solution that eluded them all year, the American Medical Association (AMA) will have to look instead to Democrats next year after having directed 73 percent of its campaign giving to Republican candidates.
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